The One Thing I Thought Tesla Might Release At Robotaxi Event But Didn’t

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It was obvious that Tesla was going to show off a futuristic looking robotaxi concept or two at its 10/10 robotaxi event at a Warner Bros. fake town in Los Angeles, and I assumed there would be no big announcement about when these robotaxi concepts would be road-ready and shuttling passengers around. But there was one other thing I thought Tesla might release that could have had a notably positive effect on Tesla the company and TSLA the stock.

I thought Tesla might roll out a Tesla ridesharing/taxi app or addition to the Tesla app that would allow current owners to shuttle passengers in their Teslas in a Tesla-specific network, not Uber or Lyft. It’s true — I didn’t expect this was likely since there were no leaks about it happening, no government filings anywhere for this type of business, and no coders finding new code on the Tesla site or app to indicate something was coming. Still, I think this is the best thing Tesla could have shown and released.

Tesla ridesharing app concept from several years ago (2018).

The Cybercabs are cool looking futuristic vehicles that won’t be here anytime soon and many believe are better suited to a sci-fi movie than actual taxi use. And the fact that they were barely presented before the event ended, and the delay starting was about two to three times as long as the presentation, didn’t instill many with confidence. If Tesla wanted to give the sense that we’re really approaching a robotaxi network, they should have rolled out an app update that allowed the network to get rolling with human drivers, something that would be easy to transition to robo drivers.

In fact, any such rollout is going to come with its own problems. There will be bugs. There will be challenges. Tesla should, imho, introduce this service with human drivers first, especially since it would at least allow for human feedback and troubleshooting if/when something goes wrong. In general, the service will need time to work smoothly, scale up, and be ready for robotaxi use.

Naturally, imagine the excitement if millions of Tesla owners could suddenly get access to a Tesla Network that allowed them to shuttle passengers in their own cars for some extra cash (after completing the necessary paperwork, getting invited in stages to start operating, having the right insurance, etc.). It would feel a lot more real than some Cybercab concepts and humanoid robots dancing and pretending to be bartenders, because it would be a lot more real.

Plus, this idea was shown in a separate presentation 6 years ago, in 2018. It is becoming a very long time for a new feature to actually arrive. It’s going to be a very old feature by the time it’s actually released.

I genuinely wonder: why isn’t this being rolled out yet? Is Tesla really going to wait until its robotaxis can operate somewhere to introduce such an app/update? Or does Elon Musk know that Tesla robotaxis are so far away that there’s no need for such an app/update yet? I can’t imagine he thinks it will be an easy thing to create in a few months once ready — or can I? Presumably, people at Tesla have been working on this for a while — I hope. But, then, a big robotaxi event seems like an ideal place to introduce it and starting providing it to owners, with the promise (yet again) that they can use it with their self-driving cars as well once it’s possible and legal.

Anyway, that was the big missed opportunity for me at the 10/10 We, Robot event. The other thing I thought was very slightly possible was Tesla launching some very limited geofenced robotaxi services in a jurisdiction or two, to try to show progress was happening, but I figured that was an extra slim possibility. At least the Tesla Network app is do-able and a way Tesla could have expanded its business right now. Too bad. Maybe next time. Surely, Musk needs to announce another event soon in order to stop the stock bleeding.

Did anyone else expect Elon Musk might release an Uber-like app at the 10/10 event? Or was I just trying too hard to think up something useful Tesla might present at the much-hyped party?