Tesla’s reveal of a robotaxi designed as a low-slung, two-seater, sporty coupe - quite the opposite of a typical taxi with room for several passengers and luggage - flummoxed investors and analysts.
But in true Musk style, he skipped over expectations of how a two-seater robotaxi would serve the needs of families headed to a restaurant or to the airport, or if he expected these to appeal only to a niche clientele.
Investors jeered the design and the lack of financial detail, with Tesla stocks tumbling 9% on Wall Street on Friday.
“When you think of a cab, you think of something that’s going to carry more than two people,” said Jonathan Elfalan, vehicle testing director for the automotive website Edmunds.com. “Making this a two-seat-only car is very perplexing.”
We’ll have FSD as soon as we get those flying cars with AGI I’ve been told are a few years away my entire life.
Space colonies too.
There are self driving waymo taxis in San Francisco, it is only a fiction for Musk
Those also use a combination of many different sensors to see the road around them, while Tesla stubbornly refuses to use anything except vision because that’s how humans do it. Nevermind that even with our best AI models, we’ve never even approximated how the human brain works.
Along with what @Bassman1805 says, San Francisco has a small footprint and most of it is laid out in grids, making navigation easier.
Plus, it’s not a problem-free implementation by any means.
On top of that, it’s way too easy to make them stop working. Not too easy for passengers, too easy for everyone else.
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/26/1195695051/driverless-cars-san-francisco-waymo-cruise
Unlike the other things you mentioned, full self driving taxis do exist, they are being rolled out in actual markets with customers, and despite the problems you mentioned they are safer than human drivers and overall have improved my life as a pedestrian (sorry, anecdote). It may not be the perfect generalized scifi version you have in your head that makes you compare it with flying cars or AGI, but it is here.
And, what - Musk’s version won’t have to overcome those problems?
He’s years behind the competition in his own timeline, and as all the other commenters have pointed out he never even delivers according to that timeline.
Meanwhile he’s announced a version of something that that already exists and is telling his customers and shareholders that in his best case scenario, he will be 3 years late to market - and it is a fast moving market, he falls further behind with every month that passes.
