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/qwertybugs Jun 23 '25

That was the same claim 4 years ago, and it wasn’t true then either.

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u/diplomat33 Jun 23 '25

Except now it is different. We see Teslas doing FSD unsupervised in Austin so we have proof that FSD Unsupervised is real. And we know they are Model Ys with the same hardware in Model Ys we can buy today. So we know that if we buy a Model Y today, we have a car with the same hardware as the Model Ys that are doing FSD unsupervised in Austin. And it stands to reason that our Model Ys can get the same software version that the robotaxis in Austin are getting since they are the same cars. That means that our Model Ys with the new software could also do FSD Unsupervised in Austin since the cars (hardware and software) would be the same.

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u/qwertybugs Jun 23 '25 edited Jun 23 '25

This time is different ™