Tesla held its ‘We, Robot’ launch event at the Warner Bros Studios in California last week.
Here’s everything CEO Elon Musk presented.
The Cybercab: “It’s gonna be awesome”
First up were the robotaxis – in fact, Musk arrived in one.
Tesla calls it a Cybercab, and says that down the track it’ll cost less than $30,000 to buy one outright, and it’ll get you where you’re going without needing a steering wheel, pedals – or a driver.
Robotaxis already exist: you can catch Waymo’s fleet in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin, Texas.
In China, Baidu owns a robotaxi service called Apollo Go which services customers in Wuhan more cheaply than human-driven equivalents.
And people who’ve used them love them, according to recent research. Surveyed users gave an equivalent of 8.5 stars out of ten.
Elon Musk made the point that the average passenger vehicle gets used 10 hours out of a possible 168 each week, and spends the rest of that time standing idly by.
He also noted that the Uber drivers of today could be the people who run whole fleets of Cybercabs in the future.
Musk said that production of the Cybercab should land before 2027.
The Robovan: “The future should look like the future”
Next up was the Robovan, which is an autonomous minivan that can fit up to 20 people.
Musk envisions it being used for people who need to transport larger groups, such as sports teams.
The Robovan, along with the Cybercab, would be charged via induction meaning no charging cables would be required.
Optimus: “They will walk among you”
Lastly, Musk gave an update on the Optimus robot, which he hypothesised could be the biggest product ever.
“It’s just a robot with arms and legs instead of wheels,” he said.
Uses for the Optimus robot could include teaching, walking your dog, babysitting or mowing the lawn. Or just, you know, being a pal.
Development on the Optimus is less advanced than was shown, with the Optimus robots in attendance reportedly assisted by remote humans.
According to tech evangelist Robert Scoble, the bots were AI driven when they were walking, and human-assisted otherwise.
See his tweet below.
Optimus make me a drink, please.
— Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer) October 11, 2024
This is not wholly AI. A human is remote assisting.
Which means AI day next year where we will see how fast Optimus is learning. pic.twitter.com/CE2bEA2uQD
The future: “It’ll take us a minute to get to the long-term”
Still, it’s a compelling vision for the future, which could free us up from driving around looking for parking, or paying for cars we barely drive, and replace parking lots with green spaces.
Elon Musk says it’ll take us some time to get there, and as long-term investors, we know a thing or two about being patient.
We asked our investment team for their thoughts about Tesla in light of the product releases, considering wider market sentiment has been mixed.
What the team thinks
Jason Sedawie, VP of Investments at Spaceship, cut through the hype.
“The market reacted negatively to Tesla's lack of details on its autonomous ridesharing business, causing the share price to drop.
We believe that the risks, ranging from ramping up to regulation will take time to develop, and the lack of concrete timelines from the event confirmed this.
Currently, Tesla is rated a hold for both Spaceship Universe and Spaceship Earth portfolios.
The biggest winner from the event was Uber, also a holding in the Spaceship Universe Portfolio.
While autonomous driving was initially perceived as a competitive threat for Uber, it is now seen as complementary to ridesharing, as these autonomous companies will require access to demand, and Uber’s 156 million monthly active customers provides a viable solution.
Notably, there was no announcement about Tesla launching its own ridesharing app.
In contrast, Alphabet's Waymo has formed a partnership with Uber to integrate its autonomous driving technology with Uber's ridesharing and delivery networks.
We believe it would be advantageous for Tesla to pursue a similar Uber partnership.”
You can invest in Tesla through the Spaceship US Investing service, or get exposure through the Spaceship Voyager portfolios.
One or more of the Spaceship Voyager portfolios invest in Uber and Tesla.
Important! We’re sharing with you our thoughts on the companies in which Spaceship Voyager invests for your informational purposes only. We think it’s important (and interesting!) to let you know what’s happening with Spaceship Voyager’s investments. However, we are not making recommendations to buy or sell holdings in a specific company. Past performance isn’t a reliable indicator or guarantee of future performance.
