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Tesla Robotaxi

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71–80 of 788 posts

Re: Tesla Robotaxi

#71
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume robo taxi will be significantly cheaper to manufacture. You can get away with much less range and creature comforts being quite a bit less. People care much less about comfortable for something they sit in for twenty minutes versus buy for $50k

Creature comforts, fine, they can go, but a shorter range? I thought the idea was for me to be able to have my car galavanting around the city all day being a taxi for people to help me make money. Forgive my ignorance, but how is a shorter range going to help with that?

I guess it depends on the initial regulatory environment. But most likely it's not any cheaper.

He said in the video it's cheaper through the economics of reuse, not through it being cheap itself

Re: Tesla Robotaxi

#72
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They had a working car. Unlike most other reveals

But we already know they can make a car.

A new car look without steering wheel and pedals. A working robovan. I don't think people understand the complexity of creating a hardware prototype of anything. This can't be ChatGPTed

Re: Tesla Robotaxi

#73
post #32

Hey Tesla, where's the Roadster 2 you announced in 2017 and took $50,000 deposits for? Oh, that's right, it was a stunt to boost the stock price, not a real product you intended to sell. Just like this.

You mean the interest free loan they asked for? They are just waiting for it to double, so give it another 5 years. /s

Seriously, though, this is the standard Elon Musk tactic...

Re: Tesla Robotaxi

#75
They are going face major regulatory hurdles. Safety concerns are huge—both real and perceived—and governments, especially in places like the US and Europe, are still far from trusting fully autonomous vehicles. Add in fragmented regulations across different states and countries, plus potential public skepticism, and it's clear this won't be in place any time soon.

Labor opposition is also going to be a nightmare. Just as Uber faced resistance from taxi unions and legislators sympathetic to workers who saw their jobs threatened, Tesla will likely face significant opposition from drivers in the gig economy, who rely on ride-hailing platforms like Uber and Lyft. Governments may be pressured to protect those jobs, especially in regions where automation is seen as a threat to employment.

Re: Tesla Robotaxi

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use it every day, but HN says it doesn’t work

Exactly. I wish people actually used it instead of reading biased news about it. Driving is so much stress free with it now.

I frequently drive in the SF Bay Area in a non-Tesla and it's incredible how many Teslas I've seen nearly hit us, randomly swerve or brake hard for literally no reason.

I always encounter a lot of Teslas while walking my dog and it's clear they're no safer than many people who shouldn't be driving regular cars.

Re: Tesla Robotaxi

#77

The RoboTaxi looks neat, but I don't get why it only seats 2 rather than just updating the Model 3? What's the utility of an entirely new production line for a car that is less flexible than the existing model that's built at scale?

It's much easier to explain to shareholders why these things have endless delays even though "the tech is already there!" if they are a new chassis rather than an existing one. That way, when they haven't released anything in the next 5-10 years, they can still keep the music going.

Re: Tesla Robotaxi

#78
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is true, although they could add that to a model 3. I wonder how Waymo deals with it.

You close the door yourself, and open it yourself. I was horrified to discover this.

What?? What if you don’t close it and just leave? I mean this will happen.

Re: Tesla Robotaxi

#79

Anybody know why the autonomous taxi isn't just a model 3? I don't see the point in a purpose built two seater with no steering wheel or pedals and I don't know why regulators would approve an autonomous car with no way to manually override it.

I have no first hand knowledge here, but thinking from first principles. From Robotaxi fleet perspective you want autonomous maintenance, cleaning, charging, and lowest cost. From Robotaxi user perspective you want climate / music / entertaiment / safety. So the idea for robot taxi is that it should be better than model 3 in some or all of those dimensions.

Now speculating for the moment, from Elon perspective you probably want things to be more cyberpunky as that is how future looked in his childhood and he is trying to build it. Also, engineers / designers were likely mandated to handle all of the maintenance and possibly production by Tesla Bots.

Re: Tesla Robotaxi

#80
post #32

Hey Tesla, where's the Roadster 2 you announced in 2017 and took $50,000 deposits for? Oh, that's right, it was a stunt to boost the stock price, not a real product you intended to sell. Just like this.

You mean the interest free loan they asked for? They are just waiting for it to double, so give it another 5 years. /s Seriously, though, this is the standard Elon Musk tactic...

I wonder how many people did/didn't ask for their money back on that one.
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