Shareholders accuse Tesla of overegging Autopilot, Full Self-Driving capabilities Tesla and Elon Musk are establishing a pattern. Less than a month after defeating one shareholder-led class action securities fraud lawsuit, another has begun. In this latest dispute, Tesla, Musk, CFO Zachary Kirkhorn and its former CFO Deepak Ahuja are accused of artificially inflating stock prices (sound familiar?) by lying …
Could it be that no one really wants cars driving themselves?
I get that self-driving vehicles tickle certain elements of the venture capital, er, "community". Outside of that, well I suppose it depends on how much you find not talking to minicab drivers awkward. My threshold is quite high.
In my own car, I want it to do as I command. Mostly that's because I have enough human hubris to believe that I could do at least as as well as a computer program, but also because if I had to (say) exceed the speed limit to get to a hospital in time to avoid a medical emergency then I reserve the right to do so.
-A.
Here's my angle on it: I have a sneaky suspicion that, as part of the swing to e-mobility, combined with ride hailing, people started to realise they don't _actually_ need to own a car. Mix in the GenZ/Alpha who, due to study debt or just slow erosion of disposable income, a) can't afford them, b) don't have their own houses/garages to park them, or c) prefer spending on experiences, not stuff. With many life services going on-demand, pay-as-you-go cf. video, music, rides, shopping.
Now, in Europe, for the most part, e-mobility seems to be focussing on the right things, i.e. for mass transit, public transport, city commutes. That's where robo-taxies, robo-buses or truck platoons are also more practical.
tl;dr: The petrol heads aren't going to switch quickly. The well-heeled tech enthusiasts may already all have Teslas. The remainder of the market who actually want to _own_ a car, can be very well served by those dyed-in-the-wool Big Auto crowd, i.e. VW, GM, Ford, etc. They don't need/want 0-100km/h in 2s or 700km range bragging rights
What people want is affordable convenient transport where they can include all their relevant belongings.
Minicab drivers fail on all three criteria for lone travellers needing anything other than short trips. Public transport fails on the belongings aspect, and often also on the affordable and convenient lines (at least in parts of the UK since night trains and buses were de funded years ago, not to mention it often doesn't go where you want it to).
I can work around this for drunken times out with friends by starting earlier and coming home earlier. If I was younger and bothered enough to still want to go clubbing there are three options : expensive hotel, taxi that's probably even more expensive than a hotel, or drive in and don't drink.
If I already have a sunk cost of a car, absolutely I'd like it to drive me home. Don't see it happening any time soon, though.
"Could it be that no one really wants cars driving themselves?"
I want one. I don't think I'm going to get one any time soon, and possibly not ever, but I would like one if they existed. There are times where I need to go somewhere which isn't adequately served by public transportation, and if I had a car that could drive itself, I could do something else while it got me there. I could work, read a book, or take a nap without the need to spend the time manually driving, and that's worth something. This would also allow me to send the car somewhere without anyone in it, so it could be sent to pick me or someone else up when I needed it.
Whether this is worth it to you, I don't know. Although I've expressed my approval, the chances are high that, if they get one, I won't be buying version 1.0. Still, there are advantages.
I would upvote you but I quite like driving. Also since I'm generally operating on my personal autopilot with full visual and aural feedback I find its good for doing some actual thinking. Having the car drive you "might" be coonducive to doing some work but that's not for me until they build a full workstation in.
"Elon Musk reclaims title of world’s richest man after Tesla shares rise:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/28/elon-musk-richest-man-tesla-shares-rise
Just in time for the shares to come down again
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