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.”
A Cruise self-driving vehicle dragged a pedestrian. They were later fined 1.5M for it by NHTSA, and paid the victim something like 8M
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24258445/cruise-nhtsa-fine-robotaxi-pedestrian-drag
I remember that now. Thank you.
And surprisingly, it has even less to do with Tesla’s robot taxi business model than I imagined.
I agree, unfortunately it seems common around for people to conflate all self-driving together