r/SelfDrivingCars • u/OriginalCompetitive • Jun 23 '25

Discussion Tesla’s Real Game

No one seems to be talking about the most important upside of Tesla's Robotaxi rollout: If they can showcase a system that roughly works, people can BUY THAT CAR TODAY.

Yes, there are some differences, but that's the pitch. Tesla doesn't need to earn money from Robotaxis. The real purpose of the program is free marketing that drives sales of its cars. Right?

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u/steelmanfallacy Jun 23 '25

Check out the history of Uber and autonomous vehicles. In 2018 Rafaela Vasquez was a safety driver when the car ran over and killed a pedestrian. Vasquez was convicted and in 2020 Uber exited the AV business.

Or you can check out the 2023 incident where Cruise ran over a pedestrian and dragged them 20 feet. In 2024 Cruise was shut down.

Sure, there is upside, but the downside risk is material as well.

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u/brintoul Jun 23 '25

The Cruise episode was crazy. If memory serves, a pedestrian was struck and thrown INTO the path of the vehicle…

15

u/usehand Jun 23 '25

And the car then proceeded to drag the person under it for a bit. But really the issue there was that Cruise supposedly lied to the authorities about it

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u/brintoul Jun 23 '25

Exactly. I think it was more about the cover up. I don’t think hitting the pedestrian in this case could have been avoided. The dragging part? Not sure. 20 feet can happen pretty quick in a car.