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.”
Those also use a combination of many different sensors to see the road around them, while Tesla stubbornly refuses to use anything except vision because that’s how humans do it. Nevermind that even with our best AI models, we’ve never even approximated how the human brain works.
Yes, good reasons why his version will never come to market - which he is already late to. His lunch has been eaten, so to speak.