Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has expressed skepticism about the feasibility of Elon Musk’s ambitious plan to turn Tesla vehicles into a fleet of privately owned autonomous taxis.
Business Insider reports that in a recent episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi shared his thoughts on Elon Musk’s Robotaxi plan, which aims to allow Tesla owners to rent out their vehicles as autonomous taxis when not in use. The plan, which Musk claims could earn Tesla owners up to $30,000 a year, has raised doubts in Khosrowshahi’s mind.
One of the primary concerns Khosrowshahi has with the plan is the willingness of Tesla owners to allow strangers to ride in their personal vehicles. “It wasn’t clear to me that the average Tesla owner would want to have that car be ridden in by a complete stranger,” he said on the show. As many Uber drivers experience, having strangers in the car often involves cleaning up bodily fluids, food, trash, and other unpleasant things after every trip.
Another issue Khosrowshahi pointed out is the potential mismatch between the availability of Tesla vehicles and the peak demand for rides. “Probably the times at which you’re going to want your Tesla are probably going to be the same times that ridership is going to be at a peak,” he explained. In contrast, Uber can quickly adjust the number of part-time drivers to meet demand during rush hours or large events.
Khosrowshahi also noted that building a $50,000 piece of hardware is a “very, very different business” than handling over 30 million transactions every day, which involves customer service aspects such as dealing with sick passengers or lost items in cars. He suggested that Musk might be underestimating the complexity of the ride-hailing business.
Despite his doubts, Khosrowshahi welcomed the idea of collaboration with Tesla, drawing an analogy to fast food chains that have their own direct channels to consumers but also work with delivery services to maximize efficiency and usage. He believes that a similar model could work in the automotive industry, with Tesla building autonomous vehicles and partnering with Uber to turn them into a ride-hailing service.
“It’s taken us 15 years. It’s taken us tens of billions of dollars of capital, and we can provide that instantly to a partner,” Khosrowshahi said. “Hopefully, Tesla will be one of those partners.”
Read more at Business Insider here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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