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.”
Well they had to save room for all the safety features that are required for them to be remotely driven from North Korea.
This unveiling is stupid for, like… uncountable reasons. But are people really regularly riding in cabs that fit more than two people comfortably? Unless I specifically request a bigger vehicle from a cab service, a car with a backseat is usually what I get.
I usually get the option of up to 4 people unless requested. You start with the two ends of the backseat, then person 3 gets passenger seat, and person 4 makes you really hope there’s someone short and skinny in your group
I guess I’m thinking about an actual cab, like the type you flag down on the street, which is what these are also supposed to do (although since it didn’t stop for the investors trying to flag it down, yet another tesla failure).
If you try to ride in the front passenger seat of a yellow cab in NYC, you’ll be lucky if you’re only yelled at for trying that.
I typically use a taxi/Uber on my way to an airport. I at least need room for my suitcase and laptop bag
two-seater, sporty coupe - quite the opposite of a typical taxi with room for several passengers and luggage - flummoxed investors and analysts.
The majority of rides are 1 or 2 people.
For when there’s more than 1 or 2 people… they have the model 3, and Y.
It’s not rocket science people.
But his other company did just catch a rocket between two giant chopsticks.
Interesting how this dumb thing has overshadowed SpaceX performing a chopstick landing for Starship. That’s a major achievement that suggests SpaceX will meet its goals for Starship. If Elon had a lick of sense, he’d want that to be the top headline on all the feeds.
Instead, it’s about this stupid taxi. If anyone thought Elon was still good at self promotion, this should kill it.
Oh, and he spent his after launch speech hawking a cryptocurrency scheme. So that’s great. Anybody still want to go to Mars with this guy?
I have a sneaking suspicion that the Robotaxi isn’t ready and instead we just got a look at the Tesla Model 2.
It would make more sense as others mentioned for a robotaxi to have more room for seating and cargo. Even face to face seating.
Full height cargo space like a SUV or crossover (station wagon) body would maximize cargo space for quick cargo loading and unloading.
To me it makes sense because without the driver, there’s less need to maximize passengers per vehicle. Plus the added weight for the extra, often unused seats is a bigger problem for EVs because of the need to minimize weight (which then requires more heavy batteries). Generally the vast majority of taxi trips are one or two people, so you don’t wanna make them any bigger than necessary. And if there’s 4 people, they can just take 2.
The problem isn’t the number of seats, it’s that there’s no plan for them to become actually self-driving.
