Robo Taxi Thoughts?

[Lives2TruckAround]

Watching and listening to all the Robo Taxi hype here and there and I just wanted to get everybody's thoughts on the matter.

I'm sure there are pros and cons so don't let my opinion shift your thinking and it's just MY OPINION so don't get all defensive or something to that extent. We are all one friendly community here.

My Thoughts....

I like that there are hints of the 1.5 million mile battery/car and I might seem selfish at this point but.... I don't think I want other people riding in my 80k truck unsupervised regardless if it'll make 30+k a year.

I had a bad experience driving for uber in my brand new leather seat Ford Escape Titanium cuz I needed extra cash (at the time don't judge the price of my future CT). Well... this guy smelled and reeked of cigarette smoke and it literally stained my leather seats with that smell for months. I am worried that if I/we robotaxi out our CT and EV's that.. what if some jerk college kid or group or ghetto person throws juice, alcohol, whatever all over my console just because its not theirs? or they trash it just because they can or because they hate Telsas and this is an opportunity to get "revenge" from ICE cars?

Well excuse any language or descriptive words you don't like but I'm just saying it how it is. Thoughts???

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[LoPro]

I’m not really interested in that myself either, but I assume they would get filmed by the interior camera and probably have to sign on to some terms and conditions when booking and probably a ... “reclaimable upfront fee” (don’t know what it’s called in English). It could get messy (in all sense of the word) in extreme cases anyway though.

Would be perfect if the camera and AI detect stupid behavior the car drove itself to the police station though ?

 

[Lives2TruckAround]

I also watch videos of other uber drivers with dash cabin cams. Some people really are terrible

 

[Newton]

I drove for mostly lyft, and some uber for about a year with No issues. but I also rarely drove at night, as this is where the problem people are...angry drunks, fighting spouses, horny women, loud annoying girls, etc.

but if i wasnt there in the car, I'm sure people would leave trash, food, have sex, or any number of gross things.

I think beyond that...when will the truck be ready and regulators allow full driverless vehicles? We see it in some cities, san Fran I think has some, vegas does, some in arizona. So 5 years?

Part time Robo use...
I made about 15-20$ an hour between 4am to about 9am, so let's say $80 a day. But this is also over 200miles driven. Non trimotor would need a charge now.
80x6days = 480$ a week.

Charge it or have tri to go all day?
than maybe $200 a day x 6 days=1200 a week.

Seems good if it's almost completely passive, the part time morning robo-ing seems viable.
the full day use seems like you would have to worry about it, alot of wear, cleaning,charging, etc.

But also how long until the market is saturated and your 15-20hourly becomes 5-10?

 

[Lives2TruckAround]

This is true...

my thought process was like "oh just buy another new trash tesla that people can destroy."

Then my finances came into play and said "nope"

 

[myco.rrhizae]

i think that the majority of robotaxis will be dedicated to the network rather than part-time personal, part-time robo, for the reasons you pointed out.
Same deal with air b&b - correct me if im wrong, but i think that most air b&bs at this point are dedicated units and not spare bedrooms in the same house where the owner lives their life, which was more of the original proposition.
culture will shift away from personal ownership of vehicles over time, and at that point, the fleet owners will be the car manufacturers because the cars wont be for sale or will seem unrealistically expensive in comparison to the cost of advanced robo ride hailing.

 

[myco.rrhizae]

selling cars is just the bootloader for Tesla's real business model - robo transport as a service and global energy production and disribution

 

[Lives2TruckAround]

I can see that and it makes more sense now in relation to airbnb.

 

[GnarlyDudeLive]

My concern would be: How does one make sure the robotaxi is "clean" between the rides if there is no driver? I can imagine you could get some pretty bad reviews if your filthy puked/pissed in or whatever keeps servicing customers. Yes it could stop servicing riders based on a complaint but even one complaint is more than anyone really wants.

 

[Friday]

What about a "concierge" version of robotaxi? Like having a contract with an assisted living facility to take people who no longer drive to events/appointments. That way there's a known clientele with probably better manners.

 

[flowerlandfilms]

...if robo taxi is coupled with more service centres...
...or local cleaning facilities, upholstery replacers...
...which I think it would have to be to make the cars desirable...
...and it was free for participants in the program to take advantage..
...I don't see a problem...

 

[Luke42]

A lot of this discussion is premature, because autonomous FSD is far from proven and because the legal questions which must be resolved allowing cars to move autonomously on road moves at the speed of law (not the speed of technology).

Even if Elon's wildest dreams about FSD are realized tomorrow, it could take a decade or more before state governments decide that cars are allowed to operate with a driver.

I'm not putting money toward the robotaxi aspect until the full working tech stack (and the legalities) are working. Until then, I'm just going to use mine as I would any other vehicle I own.

 

[FutureBoy]

A lot of this discussion is premature, because autonomous FSD is far from proven and because the legal questions which must be resolved allowing cars to move autonomously on road moves at the speed of law (not the speed of technology).

Even if Elon's wildest dreams about FSD are realized tomorrow, it could take a decade or more before state governments decide that cars are allowed to operate with a driver.

I'm not putting money toward the robotaxi aspect until the full working tech stack (and the legalities) are working. Until then, I'm just going to use mine as I would any other vehicle I own.

I would say that making a decision about how one wants to use FSD is premature. Much like science fiction though, discussion is never premature.

There are many areas in life where technology is progressing apace with very little discussion from the public. As the technology matures, decisions are being made in a relative vacuum by individuals instead of by the public at large. Personally, I prefer for there to be a balance between public and private decision making. I want technologists to invent/create/develop new technologies. I don't want them to bring about an evil AI, a new pandemic, a controlling world government, or the apocalypse. As a result, I appreciate when people spend the time to think ahead on various scenarios and discuss their views so that I can at least get a general idea of where things might end up and make my own decisions later on in an informed way.

 

[TheLastStarfighter]

If I'm fortunate enough to take home a Cybertruck one day, it will probably be my favorite material possession. No way I let it be sold into robotaxi slavery. I plan to take great care of it for many years.

 

[Crissa]

I think Luke's point is valid, that there are alot of hurdles that we shouldn't be planning on it now.

Even though, that list of hurdles should become a check list, so we can be sure to be ready when someone else says they're ready. Or so the forefront people have a list of things to solve!

-Crissa