51–60 of 91 posts
The idea that you buy a cycbercab to make money for yourself seems like a side benefit. Why should anyone own cars anymore anyway? We will all just use Uber; Tesla and Waymo need Uber; they both benefit.
even to date after scaling to millions of units sold
The issue is that they’re rolling it out before Tesla’s self-driving software has been proven to be safe. And there are questions about whether a vehicle without a steering wheel or side mirrors is actually road-legal.
Additionally, I’m not sure what kind of checks Tesla is doing for the franchisees. Will they let them roll out a service anywhere they like, irrespective of whether FSD is optimized for those road conditions? Based on the way they’ve approached FSD with consumers, my guess would be yes.
Selling a car today gives Tesla the full profits of that hardware production today. Running that car as a robotaxi means that Tesla eats the costs of the hardware today in exchange for a larger total profit collected over several years.
So operating a fleet gives the company access to more long-term profits at the cost of decreasing the bank balance today (negative cash flow), where selling the cars lets the company fill the bank account right now (positive cash flow) at the cost of limiting long-term profitability.
The decision to prioritize immediate cash flow vs long term profits depends on the financial position and overall strategy of the company.
I may buy one if it works. It would pay for itself in about 3 years. Parking where I am at is about $50 a day. If this thing can drop me off and go make me money it is a no brainer. Skeptical it will work as advertised, though.
The scalability point is compound. We are talking charging, storage, and cleaning infra as well as regulatory burdens. Scaling that is hard and local, so it does make sense to outsource that. I believe the deal is really raw because of the risks involved, but Elon does have a decent track record of delivering on investment. Some of these entities will be able to perform regulatory capture and become a decent cash cow.
The franchising itself isn’t the problem - it’s a valid way for a company to scale up a service. The issue is that they’re rolling it out before Tesla’s self-driving software has been proven to be safe. And there are questions about whether a vehicle without a steering wheel or side mirrors is actually road-legal. Additionally, I’m not sure what kind of checks Tesla is doing for the franchisees. Will they let them ro…
What exists is a web page where you can express an interest in that offering.
But you can't buy a cybercab today.
This whole article is much ado about nothing.
Tesla has a page to gauge interest in something they might offer at some point in the future.
That's it. That's all there is to it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
McDonald’s owns the brand, supply chain and real estate.
And the software, if the saga around the constantly-broken ice cream machines is any indication.
What an absurd lack of nuance. Let’s consider the only major example of the alternative: Waymo. Waymo is expanding rather slowly, and I imagine there are several factors. Building the cars is capital intensive. Adding a new market requires some regulatory work, and it also requires acquiring and building a lot for the cars to park at and charge at. And hiring people to charge them. (The labor cost is a drop in the bu…