Robotaxis - won't they be trashed?

CT4FP

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One other thing to consider besides have your robotaxi trashed by drunks/idiots/mental deficients would be criminal activity. Drug dealers could use a robtaxi for deliveries or pickups. If the police busted them in the act they could seize the vehicle as evidence. Any thoughts from the faithful?
Impounding vehicles as revenue source is already a problem in many places. Hopefully, it's fixed by then or govt. might leave commercial autonomous vehicles alone as they'd already be taxing them.

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timjwright2.0

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Robot taxi implies that you, or a customer, can interact with a web site or app at which you can enter an address for pickup and a destination and the car will go to the pickup point and drive to the destination, all without human intervention. Yes, it would be amazing if the CT could do that. It's going to be a long time before it will be able to do that but if any of us are still alive when it can what would preclude us from putting our place of work or our child's school in as the pickup point and our home as the destination?
Elon seems pretty convinced that FSD is sooner than later. He maybe a little late for his predictions but I would not bet against him.
 

Newton

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Elon seems pretty convinced that FSD is sooner than later. He maybe a little late for his predictions but I would not bet against him.
of course the owner of a company thinks it will be sooner rather than later. ;)
hes been saying end of year for like 4 years
 

CybrTrkWdWk

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Regardless of whether or not they are fined for something like vomiting in your car, it will still be gross and you will be the one who has to deal with it. Also, it wont be like Uber. People who tend to behave badly will behave much worse without a person in the car. The in-car camera will mitigate that a little but it's not the same. Just think of how badly people behave on the internet when they don't have to look someone in the eye.
Now the idea of using it as a taxi service to help out my close friends and family I really like!
 

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As someone who's given nearly 3000 Uber & Lyft rides in a Tesla, 99% of the worry is just overactive imagination. Which is fine because all those worried won't use theirs as such and will allow those who want or need to make the extra $$ that much more profitable.

Also, as the owner, you have control of when the vehicle is available for RoboTaxi... Worried about vomit? Don't send it out at 2am. I never had one vomit in my car in 6 years.

In fact, many people when asked to guess the age of my Tesla said "1 or 2 years old max" when in fact it was a 2012 P85 with over 200,000 miles on it. Point being the car still looked amazing after all those rides. I didn't do anything special either other than basic cleaning or upkeep.

I doubt RT will be available till '23 or '24, but until then I will happily do Uber & Lyft and sell hundreds of customers on Tesla and CyberTruck. It's gonna be a blast, especially in a CT Trimotor!
 


hridge2020

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As someone who's given nearly 3000 Uber & Lyft rides in a Tesla, 99% of the worry is just overactive imagination. Which is fine because all those worried won't use theirs as such and will allow those who want or need to make the extra $$ that much more profitable.

Also, as the owner, you have control of when the vehicle is available for RoboTaxi... Worried about vomit? Don't send it out at 2am. I never had one vomit in my car in 6 years.

In fact, many people when asked to guess the age of my Tesla said "1 or 2 years old max" when in fact it was a 2012 P85 with over 200,000 miles on it. Point being the car still looked amazing after all those rides. I didn't do anything special either other than basic cleaning or upkeep.

I doubt RT will be available till '23 or '24, but until then I will happily do Uber & Lyft and sell hundreds of customers on Tesla and CyberTruck. It's gonna be a blast, especially in a CT Trimotor!

Thats great.. Tell Them to use my referral code: https://ts.la/henry37808
 

papajamaliciousness

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Several folks on here talk about putting their Cybertruck on Robotaxi duty. There's no supervision other than a camera. Won't these vehicles be trashed? I don't care for traveling by bus because they are usually rundown (does not apply to private tour buses).

Getting paid for otherwise idle 'assets' sounds like a great idea, but is it really feasible?

(Oh, sorry next customer, little Johnny threw up in the back seat. Ignore the smell!)

Note: This sounds like a troll post when I go back and read it, but it is serious. At least as serious as people who say they are going to go this route.
No you're right. Even if there are cameras in the vehicles, people could abuse them just off camera (like just behind one of the front seats). If someone has pooped his pants gets into the truck (this happened to me when I was a taxi driver), won't the camera actually *discourage* him from putting something down on the seat to prevent it from being damaged? The streak in his pants will likely not be visible to the camera, but the odds of your making a complaint against him might increase (or he just might think they will increase) if he visibly makes a move to protect the car by putting newspapers or a towel down. Maybe leasing a cybertruck is the perfect way to get home without anyone seeing his condition. Drunk or otherwise impaired people might be using these cars, and might not care about the effect on their credit cards. And sorry to say it but even if you can repair wanton damage to your vehicle, do you really want to? How many days will you lose if someone does something bad in it? And isn't it highly likely that the people may feel incentivized to damage or occlude your fancy camera. And I would just like to point out that a borrowed cybertruck is the perfect vehicle for transporting drugs, as it gives a reasonable doubt as to the origin of whatever little packages are discovered in the car by police. On the other hand if you are driving your little taxi and you get pulled over by the police how are you going to feel about explaining a little package about which you know nothing that appears in the back seat. Not to mention that the car is impressive so people might want to have your impressive bulletproof car around them as they are buying drugs or just after. And what if someone who is not on the hook gets into your cybertruck and trashes it. He sees the truck pull up, accosts the people waiting for it, and then gets into the cybertruck while your innocent customers do not? And let's just forget for now about these issues. What about when there is an accident? Don't tell me there are no accidents please because FSD is 10X better than a human. If a man is driving your vehicle maybe he will drive it into a brick wall or maybe just into some litigious human. Even if FSD has an accident do you want to deal with the headache. Ryan Shaw has a video of dealing with the aftermath of a fender bender involving his vehicle while it was leased to somebody.

Take a look on youtube at the horrible interactions that uber drivers experience while transporting your potential customers.

I worked very briefly as an uber driver and I worked for maybe a year as a taxi driver, and I'm just saying there are legitimate issues. But I did notice the post above from the uber driver and I know he has a point, that fear can get the best of you and he mostly did not have issues.

I'm not saying it can't work. I'm just saying yes you are right these are potentially real issues that certainly it should be possible to mitigate, like for example by not making their vehicles available during the night. Some people will get lucky, they will lease out their vehicles without incident and make money. Other people will not be so lucky.
 
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CyberGus

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Impounding vehicles as revenue source is already a problem in many places. Hopefully, it's fixed by then or govt. might leave commercial autonomous vehicles alone as they'd already be taxing them.

Can't my impounded vehicle just drive itself home?
 

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Sounds like Tesla is planning to make a vehicle specific for Robotaxi, Im beginning to doubt that we will be able to benefit from putting our Ct's on their taxi network to make some xtra cash.
 

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Sounds like Tesla is planning to make a vehicle specific for Robotaxi, Im beginning to doubt that we will be able to benefit from putting our Ct's on their taxi network to make some xtra cash.
Elon has said FSD will be worth more than the car

That implies we can make money on it, if you have it NOW

I predict those who have it before FSD goes live , will be the lucky beneficiaries. After that, there will be price points..

1. Private Use : Daily or Weekly or Monthly or Yearly, year subscriptions for private use. Affordable ..Perhaps much less than we predict

2. Commercial Use : Either you pay $100,000 up front for FSD and then 10% commission. or maybe periodic, and give Tesla 30% kickbakck.

3, You buy FSD now for $10,000. Then one day, you can add it to the Tesla network and give Tesla 10% kickback

It could be a nice earner
 


ÆCIII

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It's possible with some of today's public behavior, that a Tesla Robotaxi would need camera coverage thoroughly both inside as well as outside.

In my view if someone trashed a Robotaxi (or left some of their belongs laying inside), the AI should keep the doors locked until they picked up their belongings and/or their trash. Then if they attempted to throw trash into the vehicle or damage it for spite, Tesla could use camera footage and then ban their credentials from ever being able to use a Robotaxi again. If they inflict significant damage on the inside of the vehicle or cause harm to other passengers during transit, the AI could keep them locked inside the vehicle until the automatically summoned police arrives.

But, since these measures are likely too effective for factions of society that would rather normalize and allow degenerative behavior, it's more likely that Robotaxis will end up being just as dirty as many conventional Taxi's are today. Of course I'm sure Tesla might take steps to make them extremely durable almost impervious to damage on the inside (using stainless steel surfaces where ever possible, etc). But undoubtedly, some people will be lacking in standards of cleanliness or consideration for others.
 

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There is probably a high percentage of vomiting in taxis, since a lot of the customers are too drunk to drive. Hopefully the interior could be hosed out.
I used to drive a taxi. A high percentage of passengers were drunk, but very few actually puked in the car. Those closest to puking had friends riding along to alert me to stop or roll down the window. Much easier to hose off the exterior than Febreze the seats. Had to clean interior vomit 2-3 times per year. Not bad compared to ~20 rides per day.
 

charliemagpie

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I used to drive a taxi. A high percentage of passengers were drunk, but very few actually puked in the car. Those closest to puking had friends riding along to alert me to stop or roll down the window. Much easier to hose off the exterior than Febreze the seats. Had to clean interior vomit 2-3 times per year. Not bad compared to ~20 rides per day.
I did Uber 5 years ago. It was during my recovery from an illness.

My first Saturday night was great, income was good. I had fun... I kept driving till 2am.

This is easy !!!! What a hoot. Young ladies were calling me Uncle Charlie.!!

My second Saturday night was my last. Bloody hell, these drunks coming in and out of my car smelling like Cow poop.

Dropping off some passengers at a nightclub, I was confronted by a drunk who insisted I had his things in the back of my car... I nearly killed him, lol

Once a girl gave me 2 stars because I didn't drop her off at the door. It was blocked for roadworks !!!!

I figured a few hrs a week gets me out of the house. . Not for me.

One day I went out… Sat 5 minutes waiting for a fare… Did a U turn and went home.

--------
An autonomous car will be neutral. Cameras/feedback will pick up problems and passenger will pay for the cleanup. Very easy

And, customers also get a star rating. There will be consequences, or assistance. The best outcomes will prevail.
 
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rr6013

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Three points. Robotaxis are ahuman - machines. There’ll be two Tesla robotaxi fleets. Private and Corporate fleets. Privates will enjoy Tesla Robotaxi access but not operate under non-Tesla control kinda like Uber-X. Fleet robotaxis will be investor owned/Tesla operated. Tesla may be invested in some fleets. Tesla will include fleet insurance and common carrier liability for all robotaxis undemr its command. The answer is yes; Tesla robotaxis will be under other TaaS carriers as well.

Secondly, robotaxi will see a crush of popularity first two years. Like a new thrill ride in town, people will use it. The spectrum of activity inside a robotaxi will be legendary to criminal, just as Uber and Lyft has experienced. There will be problems. Tesla will need an entire Robotaxi resolution team just to triage accident, mis-drops, abandonment, lost and robo abuse.

Thirdly, post introduction robotaxi begins data-crunching after year fiver. Ridership rewards, Tesla Robotaxi cards, fleet discounts, Airline partnerships, corporate programs and the fine tuning begins.

I spent two years 2014-2016 in San Diego and San Francisco as Uber started up. Each market is unique. Lots of money to be made.
 

OneLapper

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I rent 12 passenger tour buses.

I've found that the nicer the bus is, the less people damage it, especially when it's clear they are responsible for PAYING for the damage they do. If the bus looks new, any damage stands out.

On a crappy bus, the owner of the bus obviously doesn't care, so the clients tend to also not care.

I know a famous client that used the marble counter top to remove a beer bottle cap. Cost them $12k to replace ALL the marble counters. Can't match marble most of the time.

Keep your RoboCT looking new, charge people for the damage they do (you'll need spare seats, door panels, etc etc etc), and you'll be lucky to break even. It's hard work and expensive to keep a rental vehicle running and looking like new.
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