Tesla's sporty, two-seater robotaxi design puzzles experts
Investors jeered design, lack of details with Tesla stocks tumbling 9%
Experts say robotaxis should emulate regular taxis with more room
Waymo's former CEO criticized the two-door configuration
By Abhirup Roy, Chris Kirkham
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 12 (Reuters) -Tesla's TSLA.O reveal of a robotaxi designed as a low-slung, two-seater, sporty coupe - quite the opposite of a typical taxi with room for several passengers and luggage - flummoxed investors and analysts.
CEO Elon Musk served up the cool design for the prototype of the Tesla robotaxi, dubbed Cybercab, at a much-hyped event near Los Angeles late on Thursday. These will go into production some time in 2026 and cost less than $30,000 a pop, he said.
But in true Musk style, he skipped over expectations of how a two-seater robotaxi would serve the needs of families headed to a restaurant or to the airport, or if he expected these to appeal only to a niche clientele.
Investors jeered the design and the lack of financial detail, with Tesla stocks tumbling 9% on Wall Street on Friday.
"When you think of a cab, you think of something that's going to carry more than two people," said Jonathan Elfalan, vehicle testing director for the automotive website Edmunds.com. "Making this a two-seat-only car is very perplexing."
Tesla did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Experts said robotaxis would best emulate regular taxis with plenty of room, a tall design and sliding doors. Musk did showcase a futuristic robovan that could seat up to 20 people but did not say when that would be available.
The market for two-door robotaxis would be very limited, said Sandeep Rao, a senior researcher at Leverage Shares, an investment management company with assets of about $1 billion, including in Tesla.
Two-door vehicles account for just 2% of car sales in the U.S., excluding SUVs and pickups, according to data from analytics firm J.D. Power.
Musk said he wanted to make robotaxis cheaper than mass transit to operate and predicted an operating cost of 20 cents per mile over time for the Cybercab.
But he did not say how quickly Tesla could mass-produce Cybercabs and secure regulatory approvals, or how it could beat Alphabet's GOOGL.O Waymo, which already operates robotaxis in some U.S. cities.
Waymo has a fleet of about 700 Jaguar Land Rover cars that fit four passengers, same as the seating capacity in Amazon's AMZN.O Zoox robotaxis.
Waymo's former CEO John Krafcik said Tesla's design looked "more playful than serious," and that the two-door configuration posed challenges for older passengers and those with disabilities.
'MORE PLAYFUL THAN SERIOUS'
Delivering the robotaxi and capturing a still nascent and tightly regulated market will be critical for Tesla.
Musk this year scrapped plans to build a smaller, cheaper vehicle amid slowing EV demand and shifted focus to the advancing Tesla's autonomy ambitions. The robotaxi business could catapult Tesla's valuation to $5 trillion, he has said, from about $700 billion now.
"Two-seaters have been proposed for decades as commuter vehicles. They just haven't taken off," said Sam Fiorani, vice president at research firm AutoForecast Solutions. Tesla will eventually need to build larger robotaxis, he said.
Blake Anderson, senior investment analyst at Carson Group, a Tesla investor, said that if the Cybercab is supposed to be a lower-cost, mass-market model to widen Tesla's appeal, the two-seat design doesn't make sense.
"It's probably a way that they can introduce something quick to market," he said.
Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco and Chris Kirkham in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh and Sam Holmes
Asset collegati
Ultime news
Disclaimer: le entità di XM Group forniscono servizi di sola esecuzione e accesso al nostro servizio di trading online, che permette all'individuo di visualizzare e/o utilizzare i contenuti disponibili sul sito o attraverso di esso; non ha il proposito di modificare o espandere le proprie funzioni, né le modifica o espande. L'accesso e l'utilizzo sono sempre soggetti a: (i) Termini e condizioni; (ii) Avvertenza sui rischi e (iii) Disclaimer completo. Tali contenuti sono perciò forniti a scopo puramente informativo. Nello specifico, ti preghiamo di considerare che i contenuti del nostro servizio di trading online non rappresentano un sollecito né un'offerta ad operare sui mercati finanziari. Il trading su qualsiasi mercato finanziario comporta un notevole livello di rischio per il tuo capitale.
Tutto il materiale pubblicato sul nostro servizio di trading online è unicamente a scopo educativo e informativo, e non contiene (e non dovrebbe essere considerato come contenente) consigli e raccomandazioni di carattere finanziario, di trading o fiscale, né informazioni riguardanti i nostri prezzi di trading, offerte o solleciti riguardanti transazioni che possano coinvolgere strumenti finanziari, oppure promozioni finanziarie da te non richieste.
Tutti i contenuti di terze parti, oltre ai contenuti offerti da XM, siano essi opinioni, news, ricerca, analisi, prezzi, altre informazioni o link a siti di terzi presenti su questo sito, sono forniti "così com'è", e vanno considerati come commenti generali sui mercati; per questo motivo, non possono essere visti come consigli di investimento. Dato che tutti i contenuti sono intesi come ricerche di investimento, devi considerare e accettare che non sono stati preparati né creati seguendo i requisiti normativi pensati per promuovere l'indipendenza delle ricerche di investimento; per questo motivo, questi contenuti devono essere considerati come comunicazioni di marketing in base alle leggi e normative vigenti. Assicurati di avere letto e compreso pienamente la nostra Notifica sulla ricerca di investimento non indipendente e la nostra Informativa sul rischio riguardante le informazioni sopra citate; tali documenti sono consultabili qui.
