By: Ewan Thomson

On July 29, 2024, Elon Musk stated that he believes the best course of action for the company Tesla is to develop self-driving taxis or robo-taxis, for a big profit. Tesla is known for selling their self- driving cars and being the highest- value car company.

The idea of robo-taxis is that there will be taxis that don’t require people to drive them saving in paying a driver. Tesla had a 45 percentprecent drop in second-quarter profit, which includeds April through, May, and June. Tesla only sold 1.8 million cars in 2023 despite their goal of 20 million cars. This is a very significant decrease in profit and is worrisome for Tesla as a company.

Mr. Gerber suggested that Elon Musk was useding the robotaxi to divert attention from selling cars.

“It’s a convenient reorientation when you’re having a hard time selling cars,” Gerber said.

Musk says that the robotaxi service will catapult Tesla’s stock, which is at around 740 billion now, into the trillions of dollars. That’s over a 30% increase. The reveal of the robotaxi’s design has been delayed to October, from August 2024. Musk also suggested that if a Tesla owner isn’t using their Tesla, they could allow the Tesla to go around and drive other people for profit to the Tesla owner.

“Next year for sure, we will have over a million robotaxis on the road,” States Elon Musk said.

In April, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report linked hundreds of accidents, with at least 29 fatal crashes, to Tesla’s self-driving. Tesla also plans to make a car that can drive in areas without a thoroughly detailed map. So that the Teslas can drive pretty much wherever they want.

Philip Koopman is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, a leading center of autonomous vehicle research.

“I’d be surprised if Tesla could pull off a ‘no kidding’ robotaxi in the next 10 years without sensors and maps,” Koopman said.

All in all, creating a car that can drive without any flaws will be a significant challenge for Tesla.

If Tesla wants to enter the Taxi market, it will face mucha lot of competition from companies like Waymo, Uber, Lyft, and Zoox. Waymo has already developed a self-driving taxi, but with the limitation of only driving in areas that are thoroughly mapped out by Waymo. Something that Tesla plans to surpass.

Ross Gerber is chief executive of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management.
“It’s a supercompetitive business that’s barely profitable,” said Ross Gerber.

All in all, we’ll see if there are self-driving Teslas driving around in the coming year.

Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/29/business/elon-musk-tesla-robotaxi.html