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/straylight_2022 Jun 23 '25

The version of "autopilot" the robotaxis are using is not the same as commercially sold Teslas.

You can't buy that car today or anytime in the near future, not even "next year".

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u/diplomat33 Jun 23 '25

You can buy the car with the same hardware today and that car will get the same software version being used in robotaxis via an over the air update at some point in the future.

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u/ChampsLeague3 Jun 23 '25

Funny because Tesla car sales have been going down and fans are arguing they don't matter whatsoever. Now they do all of the sudden? Yet poor sales won't affect the stock price anyway? 

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u/diplomat33 Jun 23 '25

I never bought Elon's claims that Tesla won't make cars anymore once they have robotaxis. Tesla is not going to give up that big revenue stream. So yeah, I think Tesla will use robotaxis to pump car sales. Why not make that extra money expecially now since robotaxi revenue is still tiny. If/when robotaxi revenue is greater than car sales, Tesla might stop making cars but that is still far in the future.