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.

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.

  • EnderMB@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I just don’t get why they still have him as CEO.

    The man spends his time mostly on Twitter, driving it into the ground to simp for Trump. He’s taken obscene amounts of money from it, while failing to offer the simplest of products from its roadmap a decade ago - an affordable electric car.

    If they don’t pivot in the next few years, they’ll run the risk of Tesla being leapfrogged to market more than it already has, with an inferior product to practically everyone that enters the EV market.

    I still fully maintain that Musk will push Tesla towards making a petrol-powered car within the next few years, so IMO the board needs to get rid before that becomes a thing.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    3 days ago

    Bro. Just one more year bro. I swear bro. Just one more year and we’ll have full self driving bro.

    Don’t lose faith bro. Or I’ll sue you and call you a pedo guy.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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        2 days 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
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          2 days ago

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

    • TriflingToad@lemmy.world
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      3 days 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

    • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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      4 days 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.orgB
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        4 days 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
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        3 days ago

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

        • filcuk@lemmy.zip
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          3 days ago

          The center of mass is lower due to the battery, so I’d say the opposite is true.

          • normanwall@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            I was going to make a smart ass comment about how bad the Cyber truck is at off-road stuff but it turns out it’s actually hard to tip over even with the chassis above the centreline of the wheels

    • TheBrideWoreCrimson@sopuli.xyz
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      3 days 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
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        3 days 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.

  • Furbag@lemmy.world
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    3 days 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
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      3 days 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.

  • affiliate@lemmy.world
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    3 days 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
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        3 days 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
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      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.

  • b161@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 days ago

    Nooo they didn’t like the self-driving robotaxi that isn’t self driving. What about the bus that can’t go over a pothole? No? How about robots that are controlled and voiced by humans? Damn. Tough crowd.

    • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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      Also there’s this whole track record of Elon Musk’s demonstrations were there’s no clear independent validation that they actually work as we are being said they to or they’re merelly announcements or concepts: those things are invariably complete total bollock at best bordering on Fraud.

      I reckon that finally he has entirely exhausted both the benefit of the doubt that his demonstrations are in any way honest and representative of real products present or future, and the idea that “he might be bullshitting but he’ll pull in enough suckers that early investors will win from going all in even if it’s 100% bollocks”.

      The Midas Touch of Elon’s bullshit has finally ran its course and turned into a Shit Touch.

  • Chestnut@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    For clarity, this means the stock is back to the price it was in September. I know car-man-bad but I get tired of these sensationalized articles that are only shared because they confirm that someone we like is bad actually

  • Scolding7300@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    What problems do autonomous taxies solve that are worth this investment of possibly decades?

    Edit: grammar

      • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        the feds would have to start issueing grants for light rail like they do with roads for that to happen. Otherwise cities will always default to a free road over a paid train system

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      none. But they would have to be electric so that they don’t lose fuel economy as 3x the number of cars on the road will 100% create traffic jams.

      • Scolding7300@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        And even then the amount of energy wasted on traveling empty from drop offs to pickups would probably be collossal. Not to speak of the infrastructure we don’t have to keep these charged

  • RandomStickman@fedia.io
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    4 days 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
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      4 days 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
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        4 days 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
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          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.space
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          4 days 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.

          • PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works
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            3 days 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.

          • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
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            4 days 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.space
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              4 days 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.

          • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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            3 days 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
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        4 days 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
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          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.

  • SloppyPuppy@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    “And all transport will be fully autonomous within 50 years.”

    Bro even cold fusion reactors have less estimation than that.