By: Rebecca Guo

After seeing the number of cars being sold decreasing, Elon Musk, the Chief Executive Officer of Tesla, believes that the company should put more Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their cars. As such, Musk believes in the rise the driverless taxis, also known as Robotaxis.

Musk believes that the Robotaxis will raise Tesla’s stock market valuation of $740 billion to trillions of dollars. However, much must take place to get there. Musk’s idea will require advances in technology and large changes in the way people view cars. Ross Gerber, Chief Executive Officer of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, said, “It’s a super competitive business that’s barely profitable.” He said this due to competition from Waymo, Uber, Lyft, Zoox, Cruise, and even China companies like Baidu.

Unfortunately, people who have used Tesla’s driver-assistance systems have had many accidents. An investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was held and in April, the administration issued a report of hundreds of accidents and at least 29 fatal crashes.

Experts claim that Musk has chosen a more “difficult approach” to self-driving cars than other companies. For example, Waymo, which provides rides to paying customers, has had numerous years to improve its technology. Philip Koopman, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, said, “You’re trying to solve the hardest problems. I’d be surprised if Tesla could pull off a ‘no kidding’ robotaxi in the next 10 years without sensors and maps.”

Another challenge for Tesla is to persuade people to switch from Teslas to Robotaxis. Companies like Turo and Getaround allow people to rent out their own vehicles. Christopher Robinson, a senior director at Lux Research who has studied robotaxis, noted that Robotaxis would require extensive human labor. Cars will need cleaning, maintenance, and repair. They would also have to employ customer service agents, engineers who monitor cars, and technicians who can fix faulty vehicles.

Robinson concluded, “It’s a slightly better taxi. I don’t think it’s as disruptive as people think it is.”