We have several electric car threads, but this is bye week and the first time I have noticed no steering wheel or pedals. Just wow.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the highly anticipated robotaxi last night, a driverless, $30K vehicle called the Cybercab. Tesla says the car—which lacks pedals and steering wheels—will go into production by 2027. The company also debuted a 20-person robovan and touted its Optimus robots.
The debut is almost a decade in the making and comes amid a series of lawsuits and investigations over Tesla's supervised driving vehicles. The company's investors hope robotaxis will generate almost 90% of Tesla's value and earnings by 2029. This would involve drivers being able to rent their vehicle through an app when not in use, earning passive income in a "part Uber, part Airbnb" model. Tesla hopes electric vehicle sales will eventually account for only 9% of Tesla's value.
Tesla is not the first company to pursue this model; Google’s Waymo already services 100,000 paid rides per week, including in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix. Amazon's Zoox is coming soon to San Francisco. [Reply]
Musk has been promising autonomous vehicles for about a decade now. Good luck on seeing the Robotaxis roll out by 2027.
I will say that the robots like Optimus will be pretty transformative, however, in the aging and disability field given the workforce shortages. Even at the higher end of the cost spectrum, those robots can do what direct support workers do at a lower cost. [Reply]
You think shit gets bad when your ATM card doesn't work? I can't even imagine entombing myself into this soulless thing. You're one GPS or AI **** up from the newest "worst ways to die".
The thing that freaks me out the worst is how that ****ing thing knew to pull over.
If they are all fly by wire and only to be used for AI driving then yeah, it makes sense that they don't have pedals or steering wheel.
Face it, these are coming whether we all like it or not. I can see the good and bad. Fewer morons operating automobiles while looking at their phones is good. Of course, the first time one of these robo cars runs over a person or crashes there will be a public uproar. Doubt it will stop them, though. [Reply]
Bagh! I much preferred the previously proposed business model where you could tell your self-driving Tesla to go to work as a robo-taxi all day while you were working. [Reply]
