Elon Musk Says Tesla Will Unveil Its Robotaxi on August 8 (cnbc.com) 154
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Tesla "is poised to roll out its version of a robotaxi later this year, according to CEO Elon Musk." ("Musk made the announcement on social media saying 'Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8.' His cryptic post contained no other details about the forthcoming line of autonomous vehicles.")
Electrek thinks they know what it'll look like. "Through Walter Issacson's approved biography of Musk, we learned that Tesla Robotaxi will be 'Cybertruck-like'."
8/8 (of the year 2024) would be a Thursday — although CNBC adds one additional clarification: At Tesla, "unveil" dates do not predict a near-future date for a commercial release of a new product. For example, Tesla unveiled its fully electric heavy-duty truck, the Semi, in 2017 and did not begin deliveries until December 2022. It still produces and sells very few Semis to this day.
"Tesla shares rose over 3% in extended trading after Musk's tweet."
Electrek thinks they know what it'll look like. "Through Walter Issacson's approved biography of Musk, we learned that Tesla Robotaxi will be 'Cybertruck-like'."
8/8 (of the year 2024) would be a Thursday — although CNBC adds one additional clarification: At Tesla, "unveil" dates do not predict a near-future date for a commercial release of a new product. For example, Tesla unveiled its fully electric heavy-duty truck, the Semi, in 2017 and did not begin deliveries until December 2022. It still produces and sells very few Semis to this day.
"Tesla shares rose over 3% in extended trading after Musk's tweet."
Fail, learn, improve, repeat (Score:4, Insightful)
This cycle was great for rockets. I look forward to seeing how it works with taxis full of and surrounded by squishy humans.
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They tested on apes first like neural link.
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Now I'm picturing a test city with a bunch of chimps dressed up in people clothes, being watched over like the Truman Show ;)
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He's just pumping the stock (Score:4, Insightful)
But the real reason this is coming out is because it's leaked that they've given up on the affordable electric car and are going to cede that entire market to Hyundai and Kia. Meanwhile BMW and Mercedes are starting to roll out serious electric cars that aren't just meant to meet government compliance requirements.
I've been saying it for years but Tesla is on borrowed time. They're build quality just isn't good enough and their cards are running off a 5 year old platform that they just don't have the resources or the engineers to modernize and update. The other companies were waiting for some battery tech to become commercially viable that was coming out of the public universities so that they didn't have to pay for the research themselves. That tech has hit and it's now perfectly practical for them to build cars to compete with Tesla and they're starting to do that.
It doesn't help that his purchase of Twitter and his open support of right-wing extremists going right up to White supremacists and neo-nazis has turned off a lot of consumers. Or that he's wasting huge amounts of time on xitter instead of trying to attract better engineers so they can update his car platform for him.
What really made SpaceX take off is Elon Musk has a persona he's built up and it attracted a shitload of engineers that wanted to work for him instead of the other companies. That persona is really all Musk ever had besides a bunch of government contracts and at least in the electric car space those government subsidies have dried up because electric cars are pretty common place now.
Like I said on my other post I wouldn't tell you to sell your Tesla stock just yet but you should be keeping an eye out for when you need to do it or you're going to get stuck holding the bag like all those GM stockholders did.
I can't be the only one old enough to remember major car companies collapsing. I don't expect to see Elon Musk get a bailout like they did because we bailed the car companies out to maintain their manufacturing capacity in case we needed it for world War III and we have that manufacturing capacity from all the other car companies. We don't need Tesla's factories and he's become so controversial a figure that it would be intensely controversial to bail him out.
And even if we did all the small stockholders got screwed when GM collapsed
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But the real reason this is coming out is because it's leaked that they've given up on the affordable electric car and are going to cede that entire market to Hyundai and Kia.
By announcing plans for a $25,000 car and committing funds for a factory to build it. Makes sense.
Did you know you can buy a sub-$10,000 all-EV car already? Just look it up on alibaba. Why hasn't Tesla's sales in China (and BYD's for that matter) been destroyed by that? Maybe you need to think about how the sticker price is not the only parameter driving the market.
I've been saying it for years but Tesla is on borrowed time. They're build quality just isn't good enough and their cards are running off a 5 year old platform that they just don't have the resources or the engineers to modernize and update.
The Model Y is the top selling car in many market regions and the #1 car in more than one region. On top of that it is satisfactory to
Are you from another timeline? (Score:4, Informative)
Sure, maybe in your time line Elon doesn't promote Nazis on Twitter and is on track for a sub $25k car, but here in mine Tesla makes about $8k on every car. $7500 of that can be attributed to a government subsidy that is going to get cut as soon as EVs are common place, which is the next 5-10 years.
Oh, and Musk just cut prices by $4500 because of unsold inventory...
Tesla's car platform is 5 years old. He needs to be working on something that can make money when that subsidy goes away, or even if it just gets cut.
As for SpaceX, ignoring the fact that he's still riding on NASA tech (who did all the hard, expensive basic research and then let him profit off it because Musk is the world's greatest welfare queen) again, he's riding on his hype to attract talent and the fact that NASA is a shadow of it's former self. All it takes is the US military saying "we don't trust this guy" and a few more Democrat administrations to turn that around and his subsidies are pulled and the engineers go work for NASA instead.
I know I've said "don't sell your stock" but in your case you should. I don't think you'll see it coming when the company collapses, forms a new business entity and makes your stock into worthless paper. Just like how my buddy got stuck with a grand of worthless GM stock.
The Commodore 64 is the best selling computer (Score:2)
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Did you know you can buy a sub-$10,000 all-EV car already? Just look it up on alibaba.
The ones on Alibaba are mostly just golf carts. A few people on YouTube have bought them expecting to get a real "car", to hilarious results (both in the poor build quality of the vehicle and how much money it actually costs to import one of these things).
I did manage to find an article about someone who successfully imported a Wuling Mini [oklahoman.com], and they claim it's not really practical for driving above 37 MPH. In the USA at least, that "city car" may as well still be an actual golf cart.
Re:He's just pumping the stock (Score:4, Insightful)
Did you know you can buy a sub-$10,000 all-EV car already? Just look it up on alibaba. Why hasn't Tesla's sales in China (and BYD's for that matter) been destroyed by that?
You know BYD actually sells cars in China sub 100000yuan right? I.e. $13k, and well outsell Teslas in that market right? Sticker price is absolutely something very important, and Tesla knows it.
Um... you do understand (Score:2)
None of that translates to the United States. Which is what we're talking about here. Musk can't make a drivable care for $25k. Even a subcompact like the ones BYD is making in China. Maybe he could in China *if* he had access to the same cheap labor _and_ better processes and engine
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Errr yes. What's your point, other than that you didn't read the context of the conversation?
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The main reason the cars are cheaper in China is because they have such a well integrated supply chain there. It also helps that people are fine with smaller batteries too, and China has the best battery tech so can reduce costs on those considerably simply by having fewer warranty issues. They also produce more of them than anyone else, so get economies of scale, and are already able to reuse and recycle EV batteries so that helps offset the up-front cost too.
Labour cost is a very small part of it, and act
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Teslas sell well in Europe because they are heavily discounted when bought through schemes like salary sacrifice and finance. Most of them are white, because white is the cheapest colour. People get them because of the hype and because they are the cheapest option in the semi-luxury segment, when bought through those schemes.
Fortunately Europe has a healthy EV market with a wide variety of cars on the market.
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He is so far behind what Google is doing he can't hope to catch up.
There's no question whether Tesla is years behind Waymo. But nobody else other than possibly GM is even in the running, so as long as Waymo and Cruise continue their plan to make full self driving be for fleet vehicles only, rather than sold to individual consumers, it really doesn't matter how far behind Tesla is, because the companies Tesla is actually competing against are still years behind Tesla.
But the real reason this is coming out is because it's leaked that they've given up on the affordable electric car and are going to cede that entire market to Hyundai and Kia. Meanwhile BMW and Mercedes are starting to roll out serious electric cars that aren't just meant to meet government compliance requirements.
Tesla hasn't cancelled anything (or at least Musk has flat out denied that this is the case, and as the CEO
There is no "running" (Score:2)
Large companies aren't allowed by their investors to compete. It's a side effect of having the top 10%.
Donald Trump famously ran two casinos out of business by letting them compete with each other. That top 10% doesn't let that happen anymore, and the weak anti trust law enforcement and lack of cops on the anti-trust beat means they can and do get away with it.
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Tesla is not leading the consumer driving aid pack either. Nissan launched hands-free autopilot years ago, back around 2017 if memory serves. Other manufacturers have systems that work much better than Tesla's, they just don't allow customers to beta test stuff that the car can't reliably do.
A lot of the tech comes from Mobileye. They don't have anyone like Musk to hype their products, but they do actually work. In terms of actually working, reliable technology, they are ahead of Tesla. As are some of the C
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Tesla is not leading the consumer driving aid pack either. Nissan launched hands-free autopilot years ago, back around 2017 if memory serves. Other manufacturers have systems that work much better than Tesla's, they just don't allow customers to beta test stuff that the car can't reliably do.
Unless Nissan has some higher-end system than the one I've tried, having driven both Nissan and Tesla cars within the last two weeks, I can say that at least in my opinion, this is not remotely the case.
Nissan's system, with its weak lane tracking, feels borderline useless as a driving aid. You can't absentmindedly keep your hands on the wheel until it makes a mistake and then correct, because if you try, you'll end up in the wrong lane when the road curves too much. You're fully driving.
With Tesla, you'r
Re:Fail, learn, improve, repeat (Score:5, Funny)
This cycle was great for rockets. I look forward to seeing how it works with taxis full of and surrounded by squishy humans.
SpaceX launched 98 rockets in 2023.
Tesla is hoping the Robotaxi will launch at least as many humans in 2024.
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gosh, is he putting the ejection seats in just to get his eyepatch?
and does this mean a convertible model, or a power passenger side sunroof? :)
hawk
Interesting part is, may use existing owner cars. (Score:2)
The last I heard about the taxi idea, they mentioned they were considering letting people send out their cars as taxis when not in use, and thus owning a Tesla could actually make you money.
That does depend on true self driving to work but it seems like they are pretty close now.
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I really don't feel like finding used condoms and puke in my glove compartment after sending my car out for a Friday night taxi session. But everyone's different!
Just have a prominent sign on the window that says "Anyone traveling in this car consents to being recorded, agrees that these recordings are the sole property of the car's owner, and grants said owner the right to distribute the recordings worldwide, in any medium, in perpetuity." That way, even though you still won't be happy about the used condoms in the car, at least you'll be able to pay someone else to clean it using the money you make from selling amateur porn. :-D
Re: Interesting part is, may use existing owner ca (Score:2)
Yes, I'm sure that will stand UP in court. /s
Based on data (Score:2)
Based on what evidence? Faith in Musk?
Over one billion miles driven using FSD. [twitter.com]
Looking that that graph is should be obvious where it is going, and how soon.
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Or really we should want to see something equivalent to Waymo's 7+ million actually *driverless* miles driven.
https://waymo.com/blog/2023/12... [waymo.com].
He's panicking (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not saying you should sell your Tesla stock immediately. But he did just try to extract 55 billion from the company. I wouldn't call that a good look. I'd say you need to start paying attention because otherwise you're going to get caught with stock just as worthless as that GM stock from when they collapsed.
Buddy of mine had about a grand in GM shares that he got caught holding the bag on when they folded...
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I'm not saying you should sell your Tesla stock immediately.
Considering the stock has lost over 50% of its value [marketwatch.com] in two years, you might be on to something.
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I'm hesitant to call the stock price falling to more reasonable levels to be indicative of much - Even Musk was saying Tesla stock was overpriced.
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Catching up? Far surpassed. BMW and Mercedes always had much better chassis and interiors than Tesla, now they have the electric motors, too. Teslas have the build quality of a GM and the price of a BMW.
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Close to what? The luxury market is dominated by BMW and Mercedes. They both have multiple EVs with an extensive line-up and unlike Tesla who have their vehicles backing up at lots, BMW and Mercedes aren't able to meet demand with both extensive backorder lists (colleague just ordered an i5, delivery time expected some time in 2025)
Or maybe you're talking about technology? There's a car company out there selling consumer vehicles with Level 3 autopilot that is approved for use on US roads, and it's not Tesl
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That is why MB and BMW are outselling Tesla. Oh yeah.
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I know pickups are the most profitable segment in the US, but they just aren't a natural fit as an EV - neither functionally nor culturally.
PHEV makes the most sense for pickups but Tesla is not the company to do that.
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There's little profit in low-end cars. It only makes sense if you can sell a lot of them. But commutes are long enough and charger availability scarce enough in the US that those cheap, short-range micro vehicles are not practical for many people here.
Real pickups are where the big money is, because they are cheap to make and people are now willing to buy up-content ones for large amounts of money despite the high fuel prices. But this vehicle is not cheap to make, so I do agree it is a perplexing strategy.
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Indeed. My BIL spent about 80k on a truck and then another 30k having it customized at a speciality body shop.
The only visible changes: it's raised a bit but not dramatically, new tires to match the raise, an American flag on the back. SMH!
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The decision to develop the cybertruck before an affordable commuter car just baffles me.
I'd always assumed that it was to eventually lead on to battery driven military vehicles.
I mean, those exist now, but only as little buggies and dirt bikes. Not great big heavy things.
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Current battery tech can't run a modern military. You can't stop fighting for a few hours to charge up. The enemy is not that generous.
As opposed to 2 minutes pouring fuel in the tank and going.
Maybe some non combat vehicles no where near the enemy for, I dunno, delivering mail on base or driving the general around the golf course. But not for real military stuff.
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On the other hand, the fuel tends to be extremely dangerous in combat zones, and the noise reduction can be very advantageous at times. That said, I tend to picture hybrid military vehicles.
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Hybrid maybe but pure battery, no. I'll take a tank battalion running on liquid over batteries every time. The last thing the battery tank crew will hear is the loud fuel tank coming over the hill to blow them up while they're charging (charging from what, btw?)
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Except that the liquid fueled tanks would be shot by the hidden BEV tanks when they crest the hill, from ambush. Without the noise, heat, and emissions, the BEV tanks would be able to hide better. With a longer charge time, they'd have every incentive to hide while fueling.
And you can hide the charging cables.
Worst case, they just move, where a fueling tank is more vulnerable.
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Tanks are spotted by radar and IR and satellite and drones. By the time a tank can be heard it's likely already shot at you a few times as the m1 Abram's has an effective firing range of almost 2 miles. Can you hear a tank from 2 miles away? My guess is no.
And again, what exactly is the electric tank using to charge from in the field?
We're not talking World of Tanks and other video games where the tanks are so close the crews can throw rocks at each other. We're talking real world combat. My liquid tan
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the profits on light trucks dwarf those of economy models. GM makes money on trucks, corvette, and cadillac. Ford on trucks and (maybe) mustang. the rest are close to breakeven.
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Because he can't make an affordable card and BMW and Mercedes among others are moving in on his luxury car market. He can't possibly compete with them on build quality, prestige and marketing.
Tesla isn't a luxury car, and never has been one. It's a mid-range workhorse car like the Camry or RAV4, but all-electric. And it is priced accordingly, which is why the Model Y was roughly the #2 car (not including trucks) in America in 2023 (behind the Toyota RAV4 only slightly), and the Model 3 also holds its own pretty well. Tesla doesn't really need to compete against BMW and Mercedes. It is already competing against the high-volume sellers like the Toyota Camry.
He's always needed to pivot to affordable cars but he can't do that because his company isn't well enough run to contain costs while maintaining build quality in order to compete at that price point.
Tesla's most likely pivot options, s
Take away the government subsidies (Score:2)
If 150,000 cars was no big deal musk wouldn't be cutting prices by 4,500. The reason he has that backup of inven
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And their prices are in line with a Lexus.
It's expensive, but that doesn't make it a luxury car. It is expensive because it has a giant lithium ion battery pack. EVs are more expensive. If you subtract the $10k to $15k EV premium, prices for the Model 3 and Model Y are comparable with the Camry and RAV4. And you easily make up the EV cost difference over the life of the vehicle in lower operating costs.
As for the supercharger market in order to keep those subsidies coming Musk was forced to open the network to other manufacturers and he won't be able to close it again. Which is a fair deal because a lot of the money for building out that that work is again coming from the government. Remember Elon Musk is the biggest welfare Queen in human history.
Not really. Exactly none of the money for Tesla's Supercharger network built prior to mid-2023 came from government subsidies. That's somethin
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GM went bankrupt. Your friend is a clown if he rode GM into bankruptcy. It's not like it was a big secret they were fucked. He got greedy, bought low, thinking the court would save them with tax dollars and got caught with his pants down. Boo hoo.
The Motors Liquidation shares still trade on the pink sheets at about 32 cents right now, btw. 32 cents a share is more than your dumb greedy friend deserves. (C'mon, tell the truth, the friend is really you, right?) Anyway, being bitter 15 years later about
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Why can't Tesla improve quality standards, or match Germany luxury interiors?
Chinese brands have done it. Check out Bjorn Nyland's reviews of them on YouTube, they are very bit as premium and well made as the German ones. They even have the same awkward software that you immediately want to replace with Android Auto.
If the Chinese can do it then Tesla should be able to.
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Math is now a cope. Cool.
How will it do in precipitation? (Score:3)
If tesla has not solved that, than precipitation is the killer.
And it would smart to add back USS and add a hi-def radar. Sunlight blinds cameras as well as eyes.
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Minor stuff.
In general, Tesla does everything that they say they will, only timelines sux.
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The old Full Self Driving demo from 2017 comes to mind.
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Apparently, you do not have decent memory or like always, you see things negatively on everything except for China.
Re:How will it do in precipitation? (Score:4, Interesting)
From your own link:
In 2017, Tesla released its Disengagement of Autonomous Mode report with the California DMV and confirmed that it drove 550 autonomous miles in self-driving test vehicles with 168 disengagement events in 2016.
While the data was for the whole year of 2016, all of the miles were driven within the few weeks leading up to the demonstration video.
Tesla clearly didnâ(TM)t have the capacity to release a self-driving system at the time because it had only just begun designing its own self-driving technology after stepping away from Mobileyeâ(TM)s driver assist system.
As we reported in 2017, Tesla ran a pre-determined route many times over in order for the system to be able to do it once without disengagement for the video.
Their argument that it wasn't "staged" is that the car really did self drive on that one run, but clearly if they had to do it many many times just to get that one good take then it was misleading people into thinking that Full Self Driving was much further along than it was.
And sure enough, where we are 8 years after FSD was announced, 7 years after the rigged demo, and it still doesn't work. In that time they have tried and abandoned several different solutions to the problem, as well as revising the hardware needed multiple times. If they ever get FSD working, it will be interesting to see how they go about retrofitting all those older vehicles they promised free upgrades to.
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Tesla did in fact state exactly what your car would be capable of by 2017. On their original website it said it would drive you to work, drop you off, and go park itself, for example.
The 2017 demo was clearly designed to make people think they were much further along than they were.
Thank you for choosing Elon-Cab! (Score:2)
Seriously, Elon is trying to make Total Recall a thing, with Neuralink, SpaceX and wanting to get his ass to Mars, and now Tesla auto-cabs.
Guess Musk Needed a Bump in Net Worth (Score:3, Insightful)
What's that? Tesla stock needed to bump a few percentage points? Maybe Musk can make an unsubstantiated and random promise on X! Just like the right-around-the-corner-FSD promises he's made now for ~7-8 years!
I'll be holding my breath!
(p.s. As a longtime-but-not-anymore Tesla owner who loves EVs in general and loved my Tesla but holy cow did Musk ever jump the shark and lose his connection with reality a while ago...)
Doubt the cybertruck look (Score:2)
Re: Doubt the cybertruck look (Score:2)
Cybertruck is also not very safe. Not street legal in Europe or even China.
Robotaxi... (Score:2)
Tesla has jumped the shark (Score:2)
High Hopes (Score:2)
Is this going to be another person in a robot suit? I can't wait!
Only one? (Score:2)
Didn't Elon-Gustav announce in 2019 that he has launched a whole whopping million in December 2020?
Elon said... (Score:3)
Looking forward to (Score:2)
Not seeing them in my neighborhood with unmarked streets and limited cell signal.
Thank you for taking Johnnycab. (Score:2)
Hope you enjoyed the ride.
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I can see robo taxis eventually we will get it workable.
Right now waymo is about as far ahead of Tesla as Space X is as far ahead as everyone else.
Tesla self driving robo taxis are a solid decade away.
Re:Another Self Crashing Car! (Score:4, Informative)
I don't think *either* is close. Or to be more accurate, they're not even the same thing. Waymo basically drives on invisible tracks except in exceptional circumstances (and in areas which typically have warm, usually clear weather), whereas Tesla tries to solve every situation it encounters de novo, everywhere. Waymo also uses remote backup drivers to deal with situations the cars have trouble with. It also uses a hardware stack that is impractically expensive, awkward, and rather energy wasteful (not just in terms of raw power draw, but drag as well).
I don't think Waymo scales, and I don't think Tesla is close to eliminating humans. So except in specific circumstances, it's where we stand.
On the other hand, this is still good news, IMHO. Because Robotaxi or not, this is Tesla's new next-gen low-cost platform on which all small vehicles will be made. And there's not that much difference between building a pure-robotaxi on it vs. a human driver, esp. since they moved with Cybertruck to steer-by-wire, so you're not even having to make a penetration for the steering column. Musk can call it a pure robotaxi all he wants, but when push comes to shove, if the software isn't ready - and I don't expect it to be - they'll just make it for human drivers.
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I'd add: all new vehicles launch with an S curve. Initial productions are always low, for many months to over a year. I personally expect Musk to spin it as "these are purely robotaxis" during the low volume phase, to buy time for the software to develop. But then be forced into sales to actual humans after that.
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If you banned non-AI vehicles from a downtown core it would probably work just fine. A well-defined problem with some inconvenient variables removed. Maybe allow some delivery trucks but make them use transponders to announce themselves to the AI cars. The self-drive stuff has trouble with edge cases, but if you essentially built a closed track a lot of that would go away.
In fact, you could drop the passenger vehicle size down to little electric golf carts given the reduced range requirements, and not wo
Re:Another Self Crashing Car! (Score:4, Insightful)
Constantly jaywalking pedestrians and cyclists weaving in and out everywhere in a chaotic downtown core are "a well-defined problem"? I dunno.
I'd rather just ban cars from the downtown core. ;-)
Re: Another Self Crashing Car! (Score:2)
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Mount LTL crowd control devices on the taxis - any pedestrian who looks like they might step off the sidewalk can get the lovely sensation of being on fire as a microwave beam sweeps over them.
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look at all the points to be had. Wait who loaded the death race 2000 rules into the car?
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That'd be fine for the people who live downtown, but you're forgetting about all the commuters. Cities would basically have to do something like what Disney World does, where you've got an absolutely massive parking lot (which ironically in the case of Disney, has its own public transportation in the form of trams, just to get people to/from the various sections of the parking lot) and a place where people can queue up waiting for a robotaxi.
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So we should put robots above humans for the convenience of corporations?
Totally makes sense.
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It's not hype .. FSD 12.3.1 .. the latest version is amazing. Check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] or ask anyone who has it. There are edge scenarios that screw with it, but those are very rare and I highly doubt it can get in a serious at-fault accident. Airplanes were the most dangerous form of transportation, but within a few decades it became the safest. We won't have to go through that with self-driving cars, because I believe FSD 12.3.1 has achieved near parity with average human driver.
T
Re:Not buying his hype anymore (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't really care how many traffic deaths there are per year, only that a company doesn't take profit from something that adds to them. Also we have had FSD on the road for some time now. If FSD helps in some way then why aren't the traffic deaths reducing as more FSD goes on the road?
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No we haven't had FSD on the road "for some time now" .. as a percentage of cars on the road FSD is a very minuscule amount. Less than 1 percent of total cars on the road in America have paid for FSD -- and of those only a certain percentage even have it enabled (the early versions from a few years ago drove overly cautious and people just disabled it and haven't yet enabled it even though it's paid for), so you wouldn't easily see the impact on traffic deaths.
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No we haven't had FSD on the road "for some time now" .. as a percentage of cars on the road FSD is a very minuscule amount. Less than 1 percent of total cars on the road in America have paid for FSD -- and of those only a certain percentage even have it enabled (the early versions from a few years ago drove overly cautious and people just disabled it and haven't yet enabled it even though it's paid for), so you wouldn't easily see the impact on traffic deaths.
More than that, it’s only used in the safest conditions. Around here you can’t read the lines on the road, sometimes for months, because they are covered in snow. Try to use any of the “self driving” technologies and the car will refuse or worse. If you want to compare numbers with human vs computer drivers, then the same conditions should be used. Sunny day freeway miles to sunny day freeway miles. It’s not clear at all they are safer than average humans, including drunk
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Re: Not buying his hype anymore (Score:2)
You guys have lines on the road ?
That would be a novelty for 99% of the streets in my neighborhood in San Jose.
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Still a hype, as far as Tesla is concerned - FSD is still a "need fairly decent conditions only" proposition. Not saying it can happen one day. But I won't live long enough to benefit from it, and it certainly will not be achieved by Tesla.
Just under half of all traffic fatalities are traced to any combination of three factors: impaired by alcohol, speeding, not wearing seat belt. In fact, not wearing seat belt is the single largest contributor in that category (just go to the NHTSA and research; I did not
You can't run a taxi service (Score:2)
Just because you believe musk's technology has achieved parity with the average driver doesn't mean it has. If it had he would be doing the same thing Google is doing having test cars out on the road. The fact that he doesn't clearly proves that the technology isn't anywhere near ready. I say not anywhere near ready because musk has repeatedly shown he's more than happy to take risks w
Re:Not buying his hype anymore (Score:5, Insightful)
Tesla is cutting prices sharply due to a huge and growing inventory of unsold cars at a time when EV sales continue to climb. The cachet and novelty of "Tesla" has worn off and the glitz of supposed "Real Life Tony Stark" looks more and more risible by the day. So Musk reaches for his secret weapon, his secret sauce (oops, the would be ketamine), that he has routinely deployed with success in the past: vaporous hype.
Back in 2016 when Tesla and SpaceX were taking off, and before there had been time enough for the many pieces of insane hype from the newly globally famous Musk to be exposed for the BS that they are, it was possible for a national news magazine to lecture us that we should take Musks's claim that he would be landing a capsule on Mars in two years seriously [time.com] -- because "super-genius". But as that fairy dust has worn off and people have taken note of his erratic behavior and massive demonstration of incompetence on the scale of 44 billion dollars lit on fire - perhaps as a joke - the Musk hype no longer has the magic it once did. When he tried to revive the collapsing former Twitter a few months ago by declaring that it was going to become everyone's universal Internet platform being your all purpose financial platform, as well as the replacement for Facebook, in addition to becoming a messaging platform almost as good as... the former Twitter, no one published any articles telling us that we should take him seriously.
It would be well to remember the solemn assurance Musk once made to prospective Tesla buyers that il wasn't anything so mundane as a mere "purchase", it was an investment - it would be worth more in a several years than it is now, in large part because you would be able to earn money by hiring it out as a taxi as you eat dinner, sleep, or work because "full self driving". No reason to expect this hype cycle to be any better.
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It doesn't take very many high profile duds to destroy a car company. Folks forget about all the car companies we had back in the late '70s and early '80s that just kind of went aw
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Whoa! One whole Reddit thread?
Reddit has dozens of threads about people asking for help with their spa draining back into their pool when the pump is off.
So what?
You're a really weird dude.
I had a Ford that needed a new transmission shipped from Detroit by train after _10_ miles. I had a GM that needed a new drive shaft after 15k miles. I had a Tesla that needed a new 12v battery after 17k miles.
Again, so what?
Do you even own a car? Have you ever owned a car? Cars break. All cars from all manufacturer
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Oh there was also the Nissan that had the steering column lock mechanism that eventually wore out and froze in the locked position. That happened twice while I owned the car.
The Mazda was fine although generally a piece of shit that leaked gallons of oil but nothing actually broke unless you count the battery shorting out. The Buick lost the master cylinder but it was 3am so no other cars on the road. I crawled home at idle speed on the streets and stopped by bouncing at a gradual angle off the curb. Th
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You're either the unluckiest man alive, treat your cars worse than shit (I've lived in new Mexico. I know what a piece of shit car treated like garbage is. This is next level) or are just making up stories for the incredibly limited about of clout you get on slashdot.
Re:Will this ben (Score:2)
Nah, I'm just unlucky with cars. I didn't even tell you how many times someone else hit my car, usually at low speed or the one time I was parked at lunch and a large truck backed into my parked car and snapped my strut and my wheel/tire was shifted 30 degrees.
My cars go in on time for regular maintenance to the dealer, get full proper oil and other fluid changes, the works. The Mazda I did leave on the street for so long undriven it was eventually towed as abandoned but the rest had normal lives.
I have c
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That's amazing, do you work at Tesla or do you have another in for the test group?
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Oh, he'll probably unveil a prototype on August 2024.
You just won't be able to ride in one until 2029 if you're lucky.
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Why 8-8? Is that a Nazi reference? He has done shit like that when he said he had a private buyer for Tesla at 420, a reference to marijuana.
Musk is gone alt-right, but not alt-right enough to be a Hitler fan.
However, if they were considering different dates and someone cautioned that 8-8 could be interpreted as a Hitler reference, then I'm sure Musk would be all-in on 8-8 at that point.
Not because he would want to promote Hitler of course, but because he loves to troll people, and an obvious but easily deniable Hitler reference is a great way to troll.