Are robotaxis the future? Or instead, the past?
Are robotaxis the future? Or instead, the past?
Robotaxis are not just limited by weak technology. They unfortunately also don’t make any business sense…
Bloomberg article on how while Tesla is trying to get out of the lawsuit that it misled consumers on Tesla's self-driving capabilities, a California judge has ruled that some of the negligence and fraud claims can proceed.
Washington Post reports that Cruise settled with the severely injured person who was dragged by their robotaxi October 2nd, 2023. The settlement amount was between $8 million and $12 million, indicating severe and permanently disabling injuries inflicted due to their weak technology.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Motional has completely halted their Las Vegas commercial self-driving operations and laid off many employees. This is all part of Motional downsizing a total of 550 people. Surely they will soon no longer exist.
Electrek reports that very few trial users are purchasing Full Self Driving after their free trial use. Elon Musk has been propping up Tesla share prices by claiming the real money will be made via autonomous vehicle software and a robotaxi fleet. But it turns out customers are not really interested in paying for Tesla's weak technology.
Markets Insider reports that some investors are seeing through the false claims that Elon Musk has been putting out about their robotaxi and AI initiatives. More will follow.
Reuters reports that Tesla's statements on their autonomous vehicles is now being investigated as possible securities or wire fraud by misleading investors and consumers about its vehicles' self-driving capabilities. This will not end well.
TechCrunch reports that SoftBank was the lead in Wayve's recent $1B funding round for developing an autonomous vehicle system. Impressive that SoftBank still has money to burn.
The Fortune article is important because it reports that he wasn't just dismissing Rebecca Tinucci, who was the executive in charge of Supercharger operations and also Tesla's highest ranking woman executive at Tesla. The entire Supercharger team of 500 employees is getting the boot! And the Supercharger operation is highly successful and critical to Tesla sales. This is yet another highly counterproductive move by Musk.
Three key execs jumped ship in the last few weeks, 14,000+ employees laid off, plus the CFO left in August. And today it is announced that two additional key execs are pushed out along with hundreds of subordinates. Rebecca Tinucci was the senior director of Tesla’s Supercharger division and the highest ranking woman executive at Tesla. The Supercharger has been Tesla's greatest success and other EV manufactures have had to adapt to its standard. It has also been key in Tesla sales because having many chargers alleviates range anxiety. Daniel Ho was the head of the new vehicles program and was with Tesla for almost 11 years after being at Ford for over 12 years. If Tesla was going to bring out a new lower cost Tesla then Ho would have been the one doing it.
NY Times article on how Elon Musk went to China and allegedly reached an agreement to access detailed map data, which might lead to Tesla getting permission to offer FSD in China. This vague announcement caused Tesla stock to increase by 15%.
The recent Tesla earnings call clearly showed that the company was having serious problems. Yet enough investors bought into the hype of the new low-cost vapor car to increase the price. At the same time important execs are leaving the company, and one in a very spectacular vote of no confidence. When will investors realize they've been hoodwindked?
Yahoo Finance article on how Dustin Moskovitz, a cofounder of Facebook, claims that Tesla is faking Full Self Driving and other numbers enough to now constitute fraud.
In the Q1 2024 financial report for General Motors they show that Cruise only has enough cash to continue operating through Q3. At that point we can expect GM to wave goodbye to their multi-billion dollar investment.
This article was published by Bloomberg just two days before Tesla's Q1 24 earnings call. It shows exactly how poorly Tesla was executing, with sales and revenue down significantly. But then on the Q1 call Musk states some fantasies about how their robotaxi and low cost Tesla would come out soon and the stock soared by 40%. Will be very interesting if the SEC pursues Musk for making false statements to investors.
Reuters article emphasizing that Tesla is nowhere near having robotaxi capability.
