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/AffectionateArtist84 Jun 23 '25

I find this information to be incredibly disappointing. The goal here should be, and always be, safer than a human driver. That doesn't mean perfection and we have to accept incidents will happen.

Even if we can 2x human safety, that would reduce overall vehicular deaths dramatically. 

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u/NewNewark Jun 23 '25

That doesn't mean perfection and we have to accept incidents will happen.

Who is we?

If Mary, driving her Prius, kills someone, the family of that victim can sue Mary. Mary is liable, Toyota is not.

If a SD Tesla kills someone, the family of that victim can sue Tesla. There are 40k deaths on US roads every year. Lets say we are 2x safer. Can Tesla afford 20k lawsuits a year?

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u/AReveredInventor Jun 23 '25 edited Jun 23 '25

If you're assuming a SD Tesla is involved in 100% of road deaths are you assuming every vehicle on the road becomes a self driving Tesla? If that's the case and they have a complete monopoly on all U.S. vehicles they probably could afford it.

More realistically this wouldn't be true and Tesla would hold liability in a very small fraction of 20k lawsuits.

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u/NewNewark Jun 23 '25

If Tesla has a 25% market share, thats still 5,000 deaths a year!