Investors criticised lack of detail about the ‘robotaxi’ showcased by Elon Musk

Analysts criticise lack of detail about the ‘robotaxi’ showcased by CEO Elon Musk

Tesla shares fell nearly 9% on Friday, wiping about $60bn (£45bn) from the company’s value, after the long-awaited unveiling of its so-called robotaxi failed to excite investors.

Shares in the electric carmaker tumbled to $217 at market close following an event in Hollywood, where the chief executive, Elon Musk, revealed a much-hyped driverless vehicle. The stock price is down roughly 12% year-to-date.

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However, analysts said the event was short on detail and also expressed disappointment over a lack of specifics about other Tesla projects. Musk has a history of making grand projections about upcoming products and failing to follow through in the timeframe he has set, or at all.

    • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.worldEnglish
      621·
      2 months ago

      Even at face value, that’s still a massive red flag coming Musk. He gave us a concept of the cybertruck that actually looked pretty badass; then delivered a vehicle straight out the Playstation 1. Any concept he pitches can be assumed to be complete bullshit.

      • friendlymessage@feddit.org
        582·
        2 months ago

        That thing looks AI generated. Better than what we got but still ridiculous. I mean, it’s huge but still somehow doesn’t really seem to have much space for passengers or cargo at the same time

        Also, why is the cabin aerodynamic while the hood is not? The whole thing is nonsensical

      • normanwall@lemmy.world
        107·
        2 months ago

        Lol this thing with a heavy battery would flip over at the mere sight of a bump, and everyone would die inside

    • TheBrideWoreCrimson@sopuli.xyz
      22·
      2 months ago

      It might not be a particularly new insight, but I find it worth repeating anyway: Musk truly is the new Ford. Runs his own company in the ground and has a hard-on for fascists.

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
        16·
        2 months ago

        With a bit of Edison thrown in for good measure. He’s constantly claiming to have invented things or founded companies that he had nothing to do with.

  • RandomStickman@fedia.io
    91·
    2 months ago

    Investors we spoke to at the event thought the event was light of real numbers and timeline

    Not like Elon is famous for keeping the timeline. Man on Mars and Tesla semi any day now.

    • Euphorazine@lemmy.world
      31·
      2 months ago

      Don’t worry, Trump and Elon said that if Trump wins 2024, we’ll have a man on Mars before Trump’s term is over.

      • PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works
        28·
        2 months ago

        So from someone who works in human spaceflight, this is ridiculously outrageous.

        I’m not insinuating that anyone thought it was realistic, but just confirming your suspicions.

        • niemcycle@lemmy.world
          22·
          2 months ago

          Don’t worry, since Trump will install himself as dictator for life, this means he has more than 4 years to get someone to Mars.

          Then again, given Trump’s age and diet, maybe 4 years is generous in and of itself…

        • Dragonstaff@leminal.spaceEnglish
          7·
          2 months ago

          Can you think of any realistic benefit to a manned mission to Mars?

          Bringing back samples would be an amazing feat, and that seems a worthwhile mission. Having a human onboard seems to complicate things far more than any data that would give us would be worth.

          • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
            5·
            2 months ago

            I’m not the person you asked and I don’t know anything about such things so this is just supposition but…

            I guess it’s an important milestone on the way to colonising Mars. It would be an acknowledgement that we’ve solved (or mitigated…) all the problems in getting a human to and fro.

            Now, if you’re asking whether there’s any realistic benefit to colonising Mars, the answer IMHO is “not in the next 50 years”.

            • Dragonstaff@leminal.spaceEnglish
              2·
              2 months ago

              Yeah, that’s about what I’m thinking. A manned mission to Mars could be an interesting project for our kids or grandkids. Anyone talking about it in our lifetimes is just a grifter.

          • PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works
            2·
            2 months ago

            First, it’s crewed or human mission - inclusive language is important! :)

            I do think human exploration is important because humans can cover longer distances faster. So your overall options for exploration increase. I do think both human and robotic are important and serve valuable purposes.

            It would be more complicated with humans, but I think that’s also a valuable learning experience that could lead to technology that would benefit Earth.

            I do not think “colonization” or whatever term you want to use should be a priority. I think science and exploration are what we should stick to, and if your excuse for colonization is because something bad will happen to Earth so we have to go somewhere else…just spend that time and those resources figuring out how to not fuck up Earth just to go fuck up the next place.

          • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
            2·
            2 months ago

            Lots of side benefits when solving the problems faced getting there.

            There are lots of useful minerals on Mars.

            Backup planet if earth gets asteroided

      • GenosseFlosse@feddit.org
        9·
        2 months ago

        Will this man be alive by the time he reaches mars, or returns to earth? Will the mars spacecraft have the same build quality and reliability as a Tesla Cybertruck, or will it blue screen after leaving the Earth’s orbit?

        • Pilferjinx@lemmy.world
          8·
          2 months ago

          Dude, I’m positive he won’t make it 2 years and then those christofascists can start with their project with JD couchfucking Vance as the president.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    882·
    2 months ago

    Narayan added that some investors were hoping for a teaser about a lower-priced vehicle, with pedals and steering wheel, that would launch next year. However, none was forthcoming.

    Expectations were low…

  • Furbag@lemmy.world
    77·
    2 months ago

    It won’t be $30k, it won’t be full self driving, it won’t be ready for production by by 2027, it won’t replace all cars on the road by 2075.

    It’s shocking that people aren’t calling him out on the fact that he also promised every Tesla on the road today would be capable of becoming a robotaxi, which was just an outrageous lie at the time and evidently they are no longer working towards making that plan a reality anymore if they’re designing dedicated autonomous vehicles. Letting him pitch a new robotaxi idea feels like letting him get away not having to face any consequences for his blatant bullshit.

    • stringere@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      2 months ago

      No Tesla will, correct.

      These cars will be available, just not where governments stand on the scale for industries that refuse to modernize or make vehicles that a lot of people actually want instead of another oversized SUV or truck with a grill taller than a tank.

    • Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world
      14·
      2 months ago

      “I hope they stop. Don’t invest. If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with investing, blackmail me with money? go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.”

      • Aceticon@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 months ago

        I suspect sometime ago it switched from belief in him to most market players believing that “enough people will believe this guy’s shit that the line will go up so best jump in early”, essentially a self-made prophecy as long as enough people believe that others believe.

        In that sense this result of his presentation pushing the line down A LOT means that even the idea that no matter how much he’s lying he will move the market up is finished and his bullshit being a Midas Touch has now reached the natural endlife of becoming a Shit Touch.

        That being so, has much more massive implications for Elon’s business success and wealth as well as that of companies links to him, than merely the market losses in this one instance, since he is very much a One Trick Pony whose “bullshitter of tech fanboys” trick has stopped working and nobody is going to be betting on Elon pushing the line up anymore, the core of his success in getting wildass ideas funded and his companies in non-Tech industries getting Tech-style market valuations.

        The next couple of years for Elon are going to be really “interesting”.

        • Poop@lemmy.ca
          2·
          2 months ago

          Could not agree more. I’m hoping he has a Hindenburg moment… Soon

    • TriflingToad@lemmy.world
      111·
      2 months ago

      I imagine the robotaxi it gonna just be some really short person under the hood running super fast like the Flintstones with a steering wheel

  • magnetosphere@fedia.io
    53·
    2 months ago

    Musk is facing a LOT more practical scrutiny now that the cybertruck is an ongoing fiasco. People are rightfully wary of getting excited about a taxi that only seats two people. Anyone who’s been paying attention will also be suspicious of his claims that the taxi will actually cost under 30k, or that it will truly go into production “before 2027”.

    I will admit that the van looks cool as hell. Of course, I still think Musk is a piece of human garbage, but I will give him that.

    • GenosseFlosse@feddit.org
      35·
      2 months ago

      It’s a bus. Elon Musk invented a bus. Now he only needs to invent a time machine, travel back to the 1800s and woo everyone with his new idea.

    • Dragonstaff@leminal.spaceEnglish
      25·
      2 months ago

      I love the aesthetic. I fully support Art Deco public transportation.

      A bus designed by someone who absolutely hates public transportation is pretty funny though. “I wish these seats faced each other so I could sit knee to knee with a stranger.” -Nobody Ever

      And there’s so little passenger space, they have a “luggage” compartment in the front. So I suppose I’m just supposed to put my bag there, out of my sight, then hope nobody takes it before I get off?

          • Hotzilla@sopuli.xyz
            16·
            2 months ago

            The driver that is driving the vehicle because musk will not be able to deliver the FSD.

            • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
              3·
              2 months ago

              Well… It’s not being engineered with a driver in mind. I don’t think they can just slap a seat in there later; having vs not having a driver is a major design consideration. This vehicle has no driver, period. If the fsd doesn’t work, he has no vehicle.

              So the question isn’t “Will they put a driver in this car?”

              The question is “Will they get this cat on the road?”

              • Hotzilla@sopuli.xyz
                6·
                2 months ago

                I can guarantee there is no design yet at all, the whole shit is just vaporware, like all musk’s demos. That demo 100% has driver in the van in the front.

                Edit: note that this part of the thread is about the bus. The robotaxi is definitely just CGI shit, no real engineer has even looked at the design yet.

    • Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world
      241·
      2 months ago

      I still can’t get over the fact that he called the cybercab “individualized mass transit” lol. Wtf does that even mean. Mass transit… For an individual? So like… A car? Or a bicycle? I guess I’m just not smart enough to understand the world’s smartest human being ever.

    • OutlierBlue@lemmy.caEnglish
      17·
      2 months ago

      It’s windowless. As someone who gets motion sickness if I can’t see out, I would cover the inside of that thing with barf. And the seats are conveniently facing sideways, which is another strong trigger for me, the barf would be aimed directly at the stranger facing me.

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.worldEnglish
      24·
      2 months ago

      now that the cybertruck is an ongoing fiasco

      Is it, though? I personally hate the fucking things, but it’s not like Tesla is having any trouble selling them.

  • sleepmode@lemmy.worldEnglish
    41·
    2 months ago

    A two seater with lambo doors that look like they’ll immediately get sheared off by a passing truck that can’t see them. A laughable delivery timeline. And the “concept” bus looks like a Dustbuster that’ll get stuck in a pothole or on top of a speed bump with its current ground clearance. It’s almost like he’s deliberately trying to tank the stock making all this impractical shit.

  • Mak'@pawb.social
    401·
    2 months ago

    I just continue to be amazed that, instead of the old, tried-and-true method of giving people what they want—a solid, reliable car at a good price, and a stellar charging network in the places people want to be—a man of his means keeps trying weird gimmicks.

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
      191·
      2 months ago

      It’s not so surprising when you consider the fact that he’s nothing but a charlatan.

      Just a colossal idiot with enough money and little enough self awareness that everyone is indulging his every whim and he never stops to consider that maybe he isn’t a visionary and a genius.

  • geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml
    291·
    2 months ago

    Musk said the company would start building the fully autonomous “Cybercab” by 2026 at a price of less than $30,000, and showed off a van he claimed was capable of transporting 20 people around town autonomously – which he said would reshape cities by turning car parks into parks.

    $30,000 for a fully autonomous bus?

    • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
      13·
      2 months ago

      He’s learned that if you put an ® next to your name there are literally zero consequences for blatantly lying.

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
      9·
      2 months ago

      Why is he even bothering when we already have Waymo? It already has full-self driving, and it works wonderfully. I use it to get rides to work when I’m too tired to drive. Just hop in, take a nap, and wake up at your destination. I trust it way more than any Uber/Lyft driver.

    • psud@aussie.zone
      2·
      2 months ago

      I think he made it reasonably clear that $30k was for the small self driving taxi, and the mini-bus would also become available

  • affiliate@lemmy.world
    292·
    2 months ago

    one of my old computer science professors said self driving cars “have been 5 years away for the past 20 years”. still rings true to this day

      • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
        82·
        2 months ago

        Oh nobody’s predicting net positive fusion anytime soon. There’s huge materials hurdles in both magnetic confinement and inertial confinement while also regenerating tritium. Neutron radiation just does not play nice.

    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 months ago

      I agree with your professor. It’s one of these things that people have a hard time understanding. A lot of folks can easily imagine the end-state, but have no clue what has to be solved to arrive there. A lot of folks think that projects in electronics, software engineering, computing, etc. are just a linear march from beginning to end; failure is a human or resource problem. In reality, there are problems out there that get exponentially harder to pull off with linear inputs, which is much harder to imagine let alone a great way to scare off investors.

      In this case, the framing of the problem is all wrong. We’re not trying to solve “a car that drives itself” (e.g. autopilot). Instead we are “simulating human sensory organs and cognition in order to pilot a vehicle without catastrophe or injury.” The latter is much harder to solve, but IMO, is a much more realistic portrayal of the job.

  • Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
    22·
    2 months ago

    The key risk for this whole bet Tesla is making is the software. I couldn’t give two shits about their hardware plans, that will come and it’s not the key challenge. Saying “we will have it next year” is just not good enough when you’ve said it before and ruined your credibility already. This event should not have happened until the software is ready to go, it’s worth nothing without that.