Elon Musk's Next Big Move
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your ultimate authority for daily Elon Musk news. Exploring the world's biggest ideas with your host, Will Walden. There's something new every day. Will Elon Musk finally deliver on his long-promised robo-taxi revolution?

This question has arised after Musk announced this week the exit Tesla's autonomous taxi service will launch on June 22nd in Austin, Texas. The Robotaxi initiative has lingered in Musk's promises for about six years, positioned as Tesla's most critical future product, and Tesla's ambitious center around creating

creating self-driving vehicles that can navigate urban environments without human assistance, ideally rejuvenating the company's dwindling financial outlook.

Tesla's Robotaxi strategy centers around Model Y SUVs currently on the market. Though Musk anticipates a steering wheel-free model, the CyberCab, could enter production by 2026. Musk believes that Tesla's camera-based technology, known as FSD, will offer the necessary precision for safe navigation.

He repeatedly mocks competing technologies such as LIDAR, which is a radar-based sensor system which is widely utilized by competitors like Waymo. Traditional automotive giants previously entered this sphere only to withdraw after incurring significant costs. General Motors, despite investing billions of dollars, recently abandoned its robotaxi ambitions, pointing to heavy investments in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

Ford similarly shuttered its autonomous driving division, concluding that robo-taxis presented excessive financial and technological challenges. These decisions leave Tesla alone among major automakers in America in pursuing this challenge.

new technology. However, Tesla faces considerable obstacles in demonstrating both technological reliability and economic viability. Brian Walker-Smith, a Stanford law expert specializing in autonomous vehicle regulation, argues that Tesla's main hurdle is economic competition, particularly against human-operated ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft. Uber drivers often operate under low wages,

which presents significant pricing pressure on robotaxi services, especially considering the high maintenance and operational costs of autonomous vehicle fleets. Currently, Tesla's approach contrasts sharply with Waymo.

This is an autonomous taxi service already operational in several U.S. cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin, the same market that Tesla now targets. Waymo, having begun commercial operations in 2020, has grown significantly, recently surpassing 10 million rides delivered via its fleet of about 1,500 vehicles. But despite this growth, Waymo continues to incur substantial losses.

They reported a $4.1 billion deficit last year within Alphabet's broader financial structure, though the parent company remains highly profitable overall.

Moreover, Uber is strengthening its autonomous vehicle position through strategic partnerships, particularly with Waymo. The Uber CEO recently emphasized that while humans will remain central to Uber's model, robo-taxis offer valuable long-term potential. Uber's collaboration with Waymo is expanding beyond Austin into new markets like Atlanta, and they're aiming to gradually integrate autonomous vehicles into its fleet alongside traditional drivers.

Safety concerns also play a significant role in shaping public perceptions around robo-taxis. Tesla's vehicles have already attracted scrutiny as incidents. Tesla's FSD has been involved in leading the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to launch investigations into serious crashes, including one fatal accident involving a pedestrian.

Tesla's reliance solely on camera-based systems without radar or LIDAR leaves it particularly vulnerable to environmental challenges like sun glare or poor visibility conditions. Now, just take a second, and I want to say thank you to Uber. Uber is helping us out with this episode. And if you've ever thought about becoming an Uber driver...

If you need a little bit of spare cash, maybe 50 bucks here and there, you want to take somebody out to dinner, you want to just save a little bit of money on the side, do it on the weekends. It's a really good way to use something that you may already have that you're not using to its fullest potential.

I've done Uber in the past. I'm going to be honest with you. And the fact that I could make two or $300 in a day, just driving my car around talking to cool people. It's great. There's a link in the show notes for you to check that out. And I want you to know, I get a little tiny kickback for that. So when you sign up and you give your first ride, I might make like five bucks. So just so you know, um, now I'm

The autonomous vehicle mirrors historical reservations about early automated elevators. The initial discomfort typically subsides quickly once passengers experience the service full hand, though. So whether Tesla's camera-only FSD system can reliably detect hazards comparable to lighter-equipped vehicles remains a contentious question.

Is it going to miss all the obstacles that are in its way? Will it drive around them? There's been studies on YouTube channels. We've all seen them of Tesla completely failing in fog and not so ideal conditions. So we're going to see how this works out. Make sure to stay tuned to this channel because if there's any news about this FSD happening in Austin, we're going to be there.

Economically, though, Tesla urgently requires a successful new venture as financial pressures mount. Last year, Tesla's sales declined for the first time annually, accompanied by a sharp drop in quarterly profits. The company's stock price reflects these difficulties, having plunged 30% since a mid-December peak.

partially impacted by market reactions to Musk's outspoken political affiliations and public statements. And despite these ongoing challenges and repeated delays, Musk continues projecting immense optimism about the Robotaxi on Tesla's value. He claimed during an investor presentation earlier this year, Robotaxis could trigger the largest asset value increase in human history, suggesting Tesla could dominate as much as 99%

of the robo taxi market but think about this if tesla can nail fsd they already have the production facilities to make as many cars as they need analysts remain skeptical about musk's claims though gordon johnson of glj research dismisses the forthcoming june launches more promotional than practical johnson argues that tesla's latest move amounts to merely demonstrating technical capability rather than seriously testing commercial feasibility

And he said that there's a possibility that Tesla will only be able to have enough cars on the road to make it worth it in about a year or two.

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Now skepticism is broader industry doubts surrounding Musk's repeated ambitions about Tesla's performance gaps. Now Smith also

notes that Musk's long record of overly optimistic forecasts undermines current assertions. Historically, Musk has repeatedly announced imminent breakthroughs for Tesla's autonomous vehicle ambitions, only to postpone or revise these timelines substantially by years, possibly decades. FSD was announced a long time ago. Still isn't here completely. Tesla did not respond to requests from us for further comment.

on the impending launch as June 22nd approaches Tesla's success or struggle in delivering a mobile viable robo-taxi service could decisively impact the company's long-term viability and also reshape everybody's

visions of Musk's credibility. Does his future prospects hinge significantly on whether its latest robo-taxi announcement proves to be another unmet promise or the beginning of a transformative new era for autonomous transportation?

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