Tesla The Czerwiecka premiere of the long-awaited “Robotaksi” requires many qualifiers: it was supervised, open only to a few invited and covered somewhere between 10-20 vehicles.
. Purchase jumped 8% day after starting, and some participants and observers called it a success. Since then, shares have largely repeated this profit.
“I thought it was extremely smooth. Everything we saw,” said the Wedbush Dan Ives analyst. “Not only from a security perspective. Maneuverability was impressive. I thought that actually even better than Waymo from the gates. I thought that entering it would be eight out of 10. I think it was 10 out of 10 in relation to our experience.”
Other experiences were less smooth: one vehicle was going on wrong side Dear, one vehicle stopped inside trafficone Suddenly it was brake on a street with a power of 40 miles per hour, and another vehicle dropped the passenger inside cut.
“What Tesla has spent last Sunday is not Robotaksi,” said analyst Gordon Johnson from Glj Research in Note published on Thursday. “It is a robotaxi infant that requires constant supervision to stop him from the wounded or other.”
From 2016 CEO Elon Musk He promises that Tesla vehicles are on the border of full autonomy.
The main plan of Tesla, part of Deux, imagined the future in which each Tesla owner would be able to “add his car to the Fleet made available only by using the Tesla telephone button and obtaining its income during work or on vacation, significantly compensating, and sometimes potentially exceeding the monthly cost of the loan or lease.”
He said in October this year that all Tesla vehicles would have equipment necessary for full independent driving.
In 2019, he said that by 2020 Tesla would have 1 million robotaxia.
So far, none of these forecasts has come true. And many researchers and rivals questioned Musk's claim that Teslas already has all the equipment needed for full autonomy.
The electric car manufacturer makes a completely different path than any other important company working on fully driving vehicles. He does not use the radar or Lidar laser devices that are mapping the environment around the vehicle.
Companies like Alphabet'S Waymo AND Amazon'S Zamx Everyone uses both radar and Lidar. However, Tesla uses cameras primarily. Musk said he thinks that the software could make up for the difference.
“I think that in the autonomous vehicle industry there is both frustrating and mysterious, it is that you know, it seems that everyone is on the same side,” said Ed Niedermeyer, a journalist who has been occupying Tesla for years and who wrote a book about the company. “You talk to almost every important expert, and they will say, you know what Tesla is doing is interesting. It pushes the technology forward in a certain way. It's like teaching a dog lead. If you can teach a dog to drive a little, it is very impressive. Does this mean that you are going to build a business around dogs? No.”
Another key difference is that Tesla has long promoted what Niedermeyer calls the “general solution” full of independent handling. This means that every Tesla will be able to ride in all circumstances anywhere in the world.
This is what Musk said in the second Tesla main plan: “When the real guidance is approved by the regulatory authorities, it will mean that you will be able to recall Tesla from almost everywhere.”
This is huge technical challenges.
“If your operating domain is the whole world, if you ever have enough miles to know that you have discussed everything you will ever see in all conditions that exist in the world?” Niedermeyer said.
Everyone else sets the Waymo route – implementation of vehicle fleets in a small area, such as Austin, Texas, Phoenix and San Francisco parts.
The fact that Tesla decided to implement robotaxis only in the Austin part, instead of letting them wander everywhere, is one of the reasons why Niedermeyer said that the company proves that Waymo is adopting a more feasible approach.
“It's funny because Tesla wants Austin to be a series, a performance that shows:” Hey, how we do it, we can do driverless, right? ” – he said. “But in fact what he shows, well, Waymo was good all the time.”
Musk still has fans and believers.
“Tesla is the future,” said Darko Protich, a resident of Austin, with whom CNBC talked in a local cafe.
Protich said he was the owner of several Tesla vehicles and drove in similar autonomous vehicles from Waymo, which, he said, he liked a bit of anxiety. He also drove in cars similar to Robotaksi in China and has less trust.
“They are not so safe,” said Protich. “They are smaller. But I honestly believe in Teslas.”
Another fan is Michael Simon from Buda in Texas.
“I just think it's amazing what Elon does,” he said. “When I saw that robotaxia was active, I thought I wanted to ride.”
Neither Protich nor Simon rode in the initial launch models, but they both said they couldn't wait.
“Elon made a huge investment around Austin, and if I was younger and continue to work, I would absolutely put Tesla to try to take care of them and be part of this exciting technology and future,” said Simon.