Elon Musk shut down internal Tesla analysis showing Robotaxi would lose money

Post by sneak » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 11:26 AM UTC

apercu wrote: post #30

tw04 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think it would have been very apparent at the start of 2024 that Tesla cannot compete with the Chinese manufacturers on cost. But they weren’t going to have to anytime soon. The US would have had very little issue convincing their allies and trade partners to block or tariff Chinese EVs to the point of preventing them from undercutting the market.

Agreed. Ford, GM, etc. would have ensured it without Musks help. And, is that a bad thing? China et all is not exactly our friend and we should stop sending them all of our money. Before I get brigaded, I am firmly opposed to the Trump/Musk planned theological oligarchy.

Post by Zigurd » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 11:44 AM UTC

monetus wrote: post #5

We had lots of modeling that showed the payback around FSD [Full Self Driving] and Robotaxi was going to be slow. It was going to be choppy. It was going to be very, very hard outside of the U.S., given the regulatory environment or lack of regulatory environment. I wonder how they originally thought it would roll out? Somewhat related, but did anyone see the EV event in China a few days ago? Have any opinions?

Post by queenkjuul » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 11:51 AM UTC

greatgib wrote: post #25

damnitbuilds wrote: post #24

"One of the people familiar with the analysis said: There is ultimately a saturation of people who want to be ferried around in somebody else’s car." I think this is wrong. i think Musk is right about this. People don't want to or cannot drive, people don't want to find public transport, people just want to get where they are going as cheaply as possible. Robotaxis have to be cheaper than normal taxis with a person d…

I don't know who is this people that you are talking about, but if it was the case, everyone would only use taxis already. Even if robotaxis would make the ride "half price", that would still be costly for a lot of persons, especially the one using their cars a lot. Also you might like to own your car, to fit it to your need and style, you might need to use it to store items for period of times, you might want to be…

Post by queenkjuul » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 11:55 AM UTC

ein0p wrote: post #7

Um, yeah, rolling out something that hasn't been done before (large scale robotaxi service) is going to be slow, choppy, and hard. What did they think the analysis would show? Ask Google about how hard this is even with a handful of taxis, let alone a million a year.

Post by detaro » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 12:12 PM UTC

consumer451 wrote: post #28

monetus wrote: post #5

We had lots of modeling that showed the payback around FSD [Full Self Driving] and Robotaxi was going to be slow. It was going to be choppy. It was going to be very, very hard outside of the U.S., given the regulatory environment or lack of regulatory environment. I wonder how they originally thought it would roll out? Somewhat related, but did anyone see the EV event in China a few days ago? Have any opinions?

> or lack of regulatory environment. I’m really curious what they meant by this exactly.