Elon Musk launches Tesla Robotaxi service in Austin for a flat rate of $4.20

Despite the empty pledge, the promise continued to come. In January last year, Musk said, “Next year, there will certainly be over a million Robotaxis.”

Do you settle for 10 or 12?

Musk appears to be on the verge of making his vision of Robotaki a reality in a test run by a small team of self-driving taxis in Austin, Texas, which began Sunday. However, if the Austin demonstration is successful, the billionaires should be able to expand their services this year, but it could take more than a year to reach one million.

There was no high interest or challenge.

While Musk made those “next year” promises, rival Waymo was busy deploying driverless taxis in Los Angeles, San Diego, Austin and other cities. We have completed 10 million paid rides.

boycott It has hindered Tesla sales in connection with mask politics. Rival electric car makers with new competitive models have stolen market share. And the investor is after a $150 billion stock wipeout When Musk chose to fight social media with the US president overseeing federal motor vehicle regulators, which can make Robotaki’s deployment much more difficult. The stock recovered somewhat after Musk said he regretted some of his comments.

Tesla shareholders have stood by Musk for many years as they ignore the odds by putting aside the promise of a successful independent electric car company (and making lots of money in the process) by ignoring the odds by making a lot of money. A decade ago, Tesla shares traded for around $18. The shares closed at $322 on Friday.

The mask looked ecstatic on Sunday morning x” @tesla_ai The Robotaxi launch begins this afternoon in Austin, with customers paying a flat rate of $4.20! ”

Testing has begun in moderation. Tesla monitors the vehicle remotely and places people in the passenger seat in case of trouble. The number of Teslas deployed is also small (only 10 or 12 vehicles) and only picks up passengers in a limited Geoficens area.

Musk vowed that the service will soon spread to other cities, and will eventually reach hundreds of thousands, if not one million, next year.

Some musque watchers on Wall Street are skeptical.

“How quickly can he expand his fleet?” asks Garrett Nelson, a CFRA analyst. “We’re probably talking dozens of vehicles at first, and that’s very small.”

Morning Star Seth Goldstein says the mask is a classic mask.

“If anyone in Austin can download the app and use Robotakshi, it will be successful, but I don’t think that will happen until 2028,” he says. “The test will take a while.”

The trend of masks pushing stocks higher with exaggerated exaggeration is well known among investors.

In 2018, he told Tesla shareholders that he “carryed the money” to buy all the shares at a massive premium and make the company private. But he wasn’t just lacking written commitment from the financial operator; Federal Stock Regulatory Authority that fined himhe had not discussed the amount of the loan or other details with them.

More recently, Musk told CNBC in May that Tesla was experiencing it. “Major Rebound” There is demand. A week later, the European Auto Trade Group announced that it had sold I plunged in half.

Musk was attacked for exaggerating the ability of the system that the car uses to drive itself, starting with its name. Completely automated driving is a misnomer. The system requires drivers to look to the roads as they may need to intervene and control.

Federal Highway Safety Regulators began an investigation into FSD last year after several accidents, and the Department of Justice conducted its own investigation, but its status is unknown. Tesla also faces lawsuits over the feature, some have led to settlements and others have been dismissed. In one case, the judge ruled against the plaintiffs because they had not proved that they had “willfully” made a false statement.

Mask says that Robotaxis will run with a fully automated improved version, making taxis safer.

He also says the service can expand rapidly across the country. His secret weapon: millions of Tesla owners are on the road. He says aerial software updates will allow you to quickly turn your car into a driverless cab and start a side business while you’re stuck in the office during eight hours or a week off.

“Instead of having your car sit in the car park, your car might be making money,” Musk said earlier this year. Airbnb Car model. “You can add or subtract cars from the fleet.”

Musk says Tesla can travel faster to deploy taxis, unlike Waymo, which took more expensive routes by refilling lasers and radar to the camera, due to the decision that cars rely solely on cameras to navigate.

“Tesla will have it, I don’t know,” Musk meditated on a conference call with investors,” and absurd things like 99% market share. ” Waymo’s head start and Potential competition with Amazon Others could end up dominating the driverless market to that extent.

But Dan Ives, a Wedbush Securities analyst and a huge Musk fan, says this time Musk might actually pull it apart because of Tesla’s ability to scale up quickly. Even skeptics like Goldstein of Morningstar have admitted that Musk sometimes makes things right.

He overturned the automotive industry by making people buy expensive electric vehicles, bringing his Starlink satellite internet service to rural areas, and recently, Unmanned SpaceX rocket landingOn a platform on Earth.

“Maybe his timeline is not realistic,” Goldstein says. “But he can develop technology products of the future.”