00:00 Speaker A
The start of Tesla’s robotaxi tests apparently didn’t go as smoothly perhaps as the company touted. Yal Finanz Prize Submarine is here with that story, Prize.
00:12 Prize
Yeah, we’re just showing that the Hollywood set where they did the actual presentation last October didn’t go exactly as planned. We saw a lot of the Tesla stands excited about taking their robotaxis right. But there were some hiccups, right? We saw some of the videos that they were taking some of the vehicles were speeding above post speed limits. And then most egregiously, there was an incident where a car, you see right here, attempted to turn left, didn’t actually do that, and went straight through a left hand turn only lane, and then crossed a double yellow, as you see here, which is also a traffic violation, a major one actually in Texas. So Nizza says that they’re aware of these incidents, and they’re monitoring them, and that they’ll take necessary actions to protect road safety. So Nizza is kind of possibly getting involved here. Meanwhile, Waymo entering Atlanta, like they said they’re officially up open for business with partnering with Uber as their sort of platform partner. So you know, Waymo’s with Uber in Atlanta, and also Austin, where Tesla’s tests is taking place. And then also they’re in LA, San Francisco, um, and places like that.
00:58 Speaker A
Do you think, Prize, you you hear about something like this, does it in any way, could it in any way slow down, disrupt the expansion of this service across the country?
01:10 Prize
You mean these little hiccups here? Yeah. I, it kind of brings a little bit of the enthusiasm down, but it’s not ready for prime time, right? They have the safety drivers, riders sitting in the passenger seat, you have teleoperators who are remotely watching the car. You know, a lot of Tesla investors are excited about the fact that this test actually started, it’s happening. But they have a long way to go to catch up to Waymo, which is doing 250,000 completed robotaxi trips a week without sort of these incidents that we’re seeing right now in Tesla.
01:45 Speaker A
All right, let’s bring in our ensemble now for more on the ride shares today. Tesla, got a Google, Uber, Lyft, they’re all in focus. Julie, you know, I, Tesla did slip a bit today, of course they had a nice pop yesterday. Though, as Prize rightfully points out, as Musk begins this journey here, he’s got some big competition, including Waymo.
02:07 Julie
Yeah, I mean, and if if there are these hiccups, I mean, as we know, federal regulators have sort of left it up to states and municipalities, whether they’re even going to allow these things to go forward. You see it going forward on a city by city basis, right? So even though Tesla is still proceeding with its tests in Austin, if it continues to see, I mean, like, we’re calling it a hiccup, but, you know, it could have been a lot worse, right? So the question is, how is Tesla addressing these issues? And then the next question is, when Tesla goes to apply for its next approval in its next city, is this going to inform that? Is this going to then cause some friction with letting that move forward? Now, we always know if we’re on an Elon Musk timeline, you can’t necessarily expect things to happen as he thinks or says that they will. Um, but this is just one more thing to consider when we’re talking about that sort of speed to market, and then capturing that market share.
03:03 Speaker A
Chris, I want to bring you here as well, as the one person on the panel who actually has a portfolio to run here. What do you make of this big fight? I got Tesla, Waymo, got Amazon in there, Uber, Lyft.
03:16 Chris
Yeah, it’s kind of a crowded space. Uh, you know, and it’s kind of an emerging market. Uh, I, I think that this is going to be proven out over time. I think that the interesting way to play it from a, you know, differentiated way is, maybe we don’t focus necessarily on, uh, you know, what Google is doing or Tesla is doing, but what does this mean for Uber? What does this mean for Lyft when we think about the removal of a key cost for them, right? And the amount of incremental profits that can drop to the bottom line once they have made these investments. To me, that’s a lot more exciting.
