I'm not really a fan of this robotaxi idea. Regular taxis, including Uber are expensive to use. A robotaxi network will be even more expensive for consumers. I see these things getting vandalized. And they could end up leaving customers stranded in bad weather. We are at least a decade away from any of this happening. Tesla needs FLIR!
Cans someone explain to me why Tesla can't solve the Phantom breaking issue in regular cruise control? How am I supposed to get excited about robotaxi and FSD when regular cruise control is still sketchy?
@@paulb4540 adaptive cruise control doesn’t have a phantom braking issue. It was Autopilot and FSD that had the issue. But it’s almost nonexistent now.
Tesla will never add radar or lidar. Humans drive using vision and having eight cameras in 360 degrees is better than two eyes with roughly 180 degrees. They will solve autonomy where it will be absolutely safer than the average human driver. I imagine there will be some sort of button a rider can press for assistance where Tesla will be able to operate the vehicle remotely as a backup.
Maybe more than one robotaxi form factor. Two-person or four-person for replacing taxis on any route and six- to twenty-person to replace minibuses on more fixed routes.
I think simply, the Tesla engineers see now have the compute to process all the data required to make a Robotaxi many times saver than human with this year. No extra sensors. And an unveil doesn’t mean in service. Just a design lock ready for production.
Go back about 5 years, Elon was on stage, touting 30k/yr, 300k life of car, giving autonomous rides. Level 3 even requires supv. The Great Rideshare Hoax. This is not the pot of gold that has been "bombshell"ing Tesla Toobers Channels
2d Camera Vision alone public 2024 worldwide...no way... even trains doesnt work like that... the realisation will hit some companys really hard .. but thats reality...
Tesla’s vision is to “create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles”…if this is still relevant, doesn’t a sub 30K car make more sense to announce first. String of disappointing let downs from FSD (vision only keeps failing in rain and bad weather on my Tesla S) to CT battery range/cost (keep my reservation?) and now this? I’m not quite getting how they achieve their vision without cheaper and longer range batteries. Breakthrough in these areas needs to come from Tesla otherwise all other car companies will slow down or stall the transition. A distraction 🤔
FSD will migrate in 2025 to Level 3 so owners can read, text and watch videos but no naps since you will have to be ready to take over with a "graceful" handoff from FSD. Robotaxi is separate and L4/L5. Don't think it will be a bigger car since the next gen car and the robotaxi will be built on the same platform based on Elon's biography.
It should be interesting. I'm hoping for a specialized vehicle about the size of Renault Twizy just fully enclosed proper car but I fear they will make a very conventional sedan form factor. Taxi use, like commuting is mostly 1 person, maybe 2 so a 4 seater will be much less cost effective and it is in low cost that taxi becomes succesful. Intending to match uber prices will not be a revolution. It has to be 10x cheaper or better. Uber pricing is short sighted.
So the original robotaxi idea was the we all of the asset of a self driving car that sits idle most all of the time. And you as an owner can lease out your car as a robotaxi and make money of an otherwise idle asset. The $25,000 car was supposed also make this an affordable option to virtually anyone. But, is there another model where Tesla owns the entire fleet of robotaxis? From the Iverson book, we know Elon was fighting with the engineers on if the $25000 car would have physical controls. At that time, Elon capitulated and said ok, can have to robotaxi version without physical controls and another version with controls. Do we think that Elon coming out with is Aug 8th announcement a knee jerk reaction to the Reuters article about model 2 cancellation?
A Robotaxi service is mostly useless outside the USA. We, we as in the rest of the world, have a working public transport nearly everywhere. And where there is no public transport there are usually no roads or people.
That kinda sucks, it means you must make unnecessary stops to pick up and drop off others thus increasing your time on the road vs at your desired destination
robo taxi might be useful for taking people from home to the station, depending how quick and reliable they are. I myself and know many people have problems when they don't live within walking distance of public transport (i.e. train). Either you need to drive yourself to the train station and park your car there, or wait at the bus stop to get to the station. Maybe robo taxis can help with this part of the journey.
Hopefully it will simply be hardware add-ons like the Waymo ipace, I don't care how ugly. So I can put on top and around my Tesla and have "(Actually) Full Self Driving".
Tesla Raj - I like you , but I think you Dont realize how very Crappy the Cruise & Waymo customer Experience is. BTW - unlike every Tesla , Waymo vehicles cost $250,000 each , and Cruise vehicles cost $150,000 each. Cruise & Waymo are both GEO fenced Robotaxi. they DO NOT ever operate on Highways , and can only operate in PRE mapped areas , limited to City Streets only. meaning , IF you say want to go to the Golden Gate tunnels park , Waymo & Cruise would HAVE TO use City Streets , while a TESLA robotaxi Could take a DIRECT route using Highways. on AVERAGE a Tesla rideshare ride is 50% FASTER and Cheaper than Waymo & Cruise. a TESLA rideshare is Still Cheaper than Waymo or Cruise even just on City Sreeets.
NO thumbs up: Robtaxi will never be theoretical due to numerous unpredictable variables afflicting the hypothesis: sleet, rain, potholes, construction variables, glare, etc.
When someone says it's 'closer than you think'... how do you know what I think? You don't. Maybe I'm better informed than you? Who knows. Let's pretend that Robotaxis run perfectly, there's a perfect booking system and they're allowed everywhere to anyone with an app, regardless of age. What now? In a major City, you have Tubes and Busses overloaded with passengers who currently aren't using Taxis. Why? Is cost the only reason? Nope, it's convenience. They come along regularly, you don't have to book them and you know you're going to get one. Ok, some journeys require changes of bus or tube, but it's no big deal. If every Bus with 40 people was displaced to cheap Robotaxis, there would be gridlock. You wouldn't get there any faster. Ok, what about medium sized towns? Public transport exists, but it's not great, so people have their own cars. That's no just for local trips, but for long distance ones. Are they going to leave their car at home and order, then wait for a Robotaxi which isn't going to be any cheaper than taking their own car? I doubt it. Are they going to sell their car and rely solely on Robotaxis? Probably not, because those occasional long journey are not suitable for the Robotaxi business model. Frankly, I think the idea will work, but it's never going to replace car ownership. It may take 5-10% of the car journeys, and might double the existing human driven Taxi fleet, but that's about all. It's another one of these ideas that idealists and futurists think is a great idea for everyone else, but they probably wouldn't use it themselves. They'll want their own car, just like I do.
