Lead
Introduction
Countdown to two years
Author 丨 Ma Xifeng
Responsible editor 丨 Luo Chao
Editor 丨Zhu Jinbin
After Tesla released its record first quarter financial results for 2022, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on a conference call that mass production of the new "Robotaxi" (driverless taxi) without steering wheels and pedals is expected by 2024, and announced more details about Tesla's vision for the future.
Although Robotaxi was mentioned in the 2016 master plan, the wave of operations that landed directly two years later is still familiar musk-style ambition plus rocket-like speed.
"I think it could be a very powerful product, and we want to achieve mass production in 2024," Musk later added, "and I think Robotaxi is going to be a huge driver of Tesla's growth." ”
Tesla's Robotaxi is moving faster than on a rocket because it's only two years away from 2024, but the workload ranges from development, testing, validation, mass production to commercial rollout of Robotaxi services that comply with U.S. state regulatory rules. In California, Tesla's largest passenger car sales market, this would mean going through a licensing process for both agencies.
Now, Tesla has announced that it has expanded the beta or beta version of its full self-driving software to 100,000 car owners, and will expand it further this year. The goal of developing Robotaxi is to minimize the cost per mile of taxi-like vehicles.
The Origins and Transformations of Tesla Robotaxi
The history of Tesla Robotaxi began with ceo Elon Musk's master plan, Part Deux, released in 2016. At the time, the concept was touted as an ordinary Tesla with fully autonomous driving (FSD) capabilities.
Musk has been hinting at driverless taxis for years, but it has not been a standalone product as it says this time. Instead, what he has repeatedly promised is to upgrade existing driver assistance systems until they become L5-level fully autonomous driving software. This will transform the Tesla cars that people now own into driverless taxis in situ.
Earlier in April, at the opening of Tesla's Austin Gigafactory, Musk outlined a variety of future products that are less relevant to his passenger car business, which feels like a stepping stone to Musk's great plan, even though the passenger car business generates most of the profits for Tesla.
At the time, Musk's announcement that the company would develop a "futuristic" dedicated Robotaxi vehicle was a shock. The most disruptive idea is not only the vehicle itself, but also the Robotaxi program, which is different from the previous one.
The former Robotaxi was firmly tied to a new network of shared car networks, the Robotaxi Network, at the outset of its proposal.
That is, once Tesla achieves L5-level autonomous driving, they will create a networked taxi service that will take advantage of Tesla-owned vehicles and customer vehicles that are rented out at leisure.
Simply put, if a consumer owns a Tesla, the consumer can choose to rent it out to others and earn money from it when the vehicle is free. Similar to the traditional time-sharing rental or online car model, in fact, the concept of car sharing is a very mature concept, such as Uber, Lyft, Didi, etc. are well-known enterprises in the field of shared cars.
The plan at the time was that Tesla would primarily promote the Model 3 model in the first phase of the driverless taxi network service. But with the introduction of the new concept of driverless taxi networks, many people are also beginning to wonder whether Tesla intends to abandon its current fully autonomous strategy, or whether this will develop in parallel.
But to some extent, it makes sense to develop a specially manufactured Robotaxi that allows more desired features to be added to the vehicle, such as face-to-face seats, large sliding doors that provide easy access, four-wheel steering, easier cleaning, etc.
Tesla can even make a variety of Robotaxis that help meet specific needs, for example, Tesla can offer a vehicle that is more suitable for rest, which can let you sleep on the way to your destination. The other car might resemble a home office, offering multiple monitors and accessories to get customers to work as soon as they step into the car.
Features such as these can lead to tremendous improvements in quality of life. Of course, this is an afterthought, and it is only after the Robotaxi has been made that more can be said. But Tesla's pursuit of Robotaxi has caused the Robotaxis, which have been steadily evolving, to feel a bit of a crisis, and Tesla's plans seem to be accelerating competition.
The current situation of the opponents
Prior to that, several of Robotaxi's major companies, including Alphabet-owned Waymo, Argo AI, Aurora, GM's self-driving subsidiaries Cruise, Motional and Zoox. Domestic Baidu Apollo, Xiaoma Zhixing, didi are also more than halfway through the process.
Even Toyota-backed self-driving technology company Xiaoma Zhixing became the first and only self-driving company to obtain a taxi license in China on the 25th of this month.
Xiaoma Zhixing was approved to operate 100 self-driving cars as traditional taxis in Nansha, Guangzhou. In May, it will begin to use 100 self-driving taxis for charging within 800 square kilometers of Nansha, and it is planned to gradually expand the scale and scope of services to other parts of Guangzhou.
While the Pony Chi Heng self-driving taxi currently retains a safety driver, the company expects to remove the driver in the short to medium term.
In China, many local startups are competing. In recent months, Momenta and automaker SAIC have received official approval to pilot a self-driving taxi service in Shanghai's Jiading district, after Wenyuan's Weride took a similar move in Guangzhou.
In Shenzhen, Alibaba-backed AutoX is also testing robo-taxis in a highly congested urban area with a large number of pedestrians and moped traffic, which, while also retaining security officers, is still a huge breakthrough in data accumulation.
In addition to safe driverless technology, the price determines the popularity of public transportation, and Tesla proposes to provide customers with a "lowest cost per mile of all means of transport to date". Musk believes the car will cost less per mile than subsidized bus tickets and will eventually be the main driver of Tesla's growth.
If Tesla succeeds in achieving a Robotaxi that costs less than subsidized bus tickets, in the future, using a driverless taxi with Tesla may actually be cheaper than owning its own, which will completely change car ownership.
Despite Tesla's ambitious two-year commitment, many experts at home and abroad still believe that the full deployment of driverless cars may not be enough time.
Security will be the main obstacle, especially in countries where reform is at a huge cost and therefore slower. Infrastructure will also determine the speed and effectiveness of the promotion of autonomous driving technology, and the public's perception and willingness to self-driving taxis will need to be improved.
But Tesla's title of "roll king" has begun to affect the driverless taxi industry, at least until 2024 Robotaxi's companies will have to rush to catch up.
Slowly, just as electric car charging stations enter parking lots, alleys and service stations, driverless taxis will eventually enter our daily lives as well. Many years later, one might recall how we lived without them.
| Ma Xifeng |
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