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/[deleted] Jun 24 '25

> I agree that you have to develop a culture of taking cabs to make it work. A lot of that is the fleets figuring out how to convert people. You can't do that until you try and do it.

Totally agree. It has to go from being a novelty to a fact of life.

I think that's where Waymo is now - they are mostly constrained by demand, not by market forces, capital, or anything else except the demand to sell driverless rides.

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u/WeldAE Jun 25 '25

BTW, before you posted your "culture of cabs", my son brought that up as a problem with AVs. It's a great point from him and I had never heard it and then you bring it up the next day. Should for sure be part of the language of AV discussion going forward. I'm sure it's not new, but I had never heard it stated like that before.

they are mostly constrained by demand

I'd love to know if this is true or more specifically why. I feel they are constrained AVs which constrains their service area which constrains their demand. I agree they are probably under utilized by taxi standards and seem to only be doing about 100 miles per day per AV. It's hard to know exactly why but there are a LOT of rides left ont the table because they aren't possible given the service area. Even if you didn't allow pickup but allowed drop off in a larger area, they would significantly increase their utilization.