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Lot of sci-fi smoke and mirrors: Investors, experts react to Tesla's robotaxi unveil
Oct 11 (Reuters) - Tesla (TSLA.O) opens new tab on Thursday showcased its long-awaited robotaxi with two gull-wing doors and no steering wheel or pedals, but the glitzy event was light on detail, disappointing investors who had hoped for more concrete plans.
CEO Elon Musk, who has a record of missing projections - and himself said he tended to be optimistic with time frames - did not say how quickly Tesla could ramp up robotaxi production, clear inevitable regulatory hurdles or implement a business plan to leapfrog robotaxi rivals.
MATTHEW WANSLEY, PROFESSOR AT NEW YORK'S CARDOZO SCHOOL OF LAW
"The big open question about Tesla is just the software is so far behind where the rest of the industry is today."
KC BOYCE, VICE PRESIDENT AT DATA ANALYTICS AND ADVISORY FIRM ESCALENT
"The vision-only system Tesla has chosen handicaps their capabilities versus how Waymo and Cruise have chosen to approach autonomy. Despite that, Tesla has a potential advantage from its existing fleet and the 'vision' data available from that. Whether that data advantage is enough to close the sensor gap, I'm skeptical."
BRIAN MULBERRY, CLIENT PORTFOLIO MANAGER, ZACKS INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT
"We're overall kind of lukewarm on the event because the lack of detail certainly is concerning. The lack of detail for us means we didn't get any more clarity. So in terms of robotaxi revenues positively adding to earnings per share, we're still seeing it's six, seven, eight years away. That's what we take away from this."
HANNAH YEE-FEN LIM, PROFESSOR, NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
"But really, the two-seater design is probably the least of the problems, because the technology is really not quite there yet. If (Musk) is saying that now there's no radar and no lidar ... I don't think it can sense the surroundings properly, and if you cannot sense the surrounding properly, no AI algorithm is going to help you drive that car safely."
COLIN LANGAN, ANALYST AT WELLS FARGO
CRIJN BOUMAN, CEO OF EV CHARGING SOLUTIONS FIRM ROCSYS
"The fundamental thing about the robotaxi is that you want the vehicle to be available almost 24-7. Every time it spends charging, it's not making revenue, so it's not making the vehicle profitable. So you need to have fast charging, and (inductive charging) is typically for a low-power context so it will take hours and hours to charge, so I wonder if they have a fast-charging option."
Hannah Lim Yee Fen is the Associate Professor, Division of Business Law at the Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University Singapore.
Source: Reuters
