FSD robotaxi use for shopping and parked

[richguy]

In the future when robotaxis are available I can imagine someone calling one to go grocery shopping or multiple shopping trips.
So the user gets to the grocery store and it parks. charges are made by the mile? time? and the user shops. the user comes out and the taxi is gone. oh wait, maybe we will be allowed to "hold" the taxi? if so; then is the time of use also charged for? i.e. i shop for a half hour and it takes me 5 miles to get to the store and 5 miles to get back home. what would my charge be?
Could i call for a robotaxi and have it drive me 100 miles to a doctor appointment, hold it for two days because i'm in surgery and recovery, then take me home?
Could i call for a robotaxi and use it for a month or week, holding it in between uses?
I live in a low population area, north Idaho. very few charging stations and the closest tesla repair station might be in spokane, wa. It might be 5 years after robotaxis are made before they come to spokane, let alone sold to private citizens if ever. I might be interested in buying one customized to my options. Right now there is only charging stations in Coeur d' alene, idaho 1.5 hours away. So having my own robotaxi makes some sense, but using a robotaxi owned by Tesla does not...they would want it stationed a long distance away - in a city.

 

[uscbucsfan]

When Mars is colonized, will there be school buses?

 

[azred]

When Mars is colonized, will there be school buses?

Don’t know the answer, but I do believe Mars will be colonized before Tesla has robotaxis.

 

[JulienW]

Don’t know the answer, but I do believe Mars will be colonized before Tesla has robotaxis.

....but only by "two weeks".

 

[kpanda17]

Remember robo “taxi”
Think you make the vehicle request, like Uber
It arrives and takes you to where you want to go
You get out and it’s free for the next taxi hail
You finish shopping and repeat rhe process

We’ve been doing this with Uber for over 10 years
Easy
Just no driver now

 

[RTPEV]

Remember robo “taxi”
Think you make the vehicle request, like Uber
It arrives and takes you to where you want to go
You get out and it’s free for the next taxi hail
You finish shopping and repeat rhe process

We’ve been doing this with Uber for over 10 years
Easy
Just no driver now

I think you (and those that think the transition from personally owned transportation to robotaxis won't require significant adjustment) miss the very valid point the OP is trying to make. That is: not all trips are simple point to point journeys. Someone that lives in a rural or even suburban area might wish to combine multiple stops into a single trip. Fine enough if all you are doing is visiting someone or maybe having a coffee or meal, but what if you have to go to the hardware store, the drug store and the grocery store all in the same trip, and then maybe go grab lunch? Do you then have to haul all the stuff you bought at each store into the other stores and then finally the restaurant because the robotaxi you called leaves after it drops you off. In an urban setting, you might be able to get away with 3 different trips because everything is relatively close by. But where my in-laws live, you have to drive 35-40 minutes to get to those places. That's a lot of unnecessary round trips if you aren't able to combine the trips.

Okay, so you change the concept of a robotaxi to one where you instead rent the car by the hour and it waits for you while you do your errands. Well, that's not really a robotaxi any more is it? It's more like a Zipcar concept, albeit one that may be able to come and get you. But for those that do live out in the country, what's the lead time for the car to come to you, and are you paying from the time the car leaves its previous destination to reach your remote location? And if not, how does that non-revenue earning portion of the car's life affect pricing?

Here's another example: we go to about 40 pro-hockey games a year. Initially this may seem like a great use case for robotaxis--no need to have huge parking lots with expensive fees next to arenas. But wait: the game is over and now you are going to effectively need the equivalent of all those vehicles parked in the adjacent lots to be available to take all those fans home because unlike Uber that benefits from the random nature of people needing trips, after a game, everyone leaves all at once. And also, being in the south, we can tailgate for many of those games with our friends. What do we do with our coolers and tables and chairs? Can't take those into the arena. Maybe the culture around tailgating at sporting events would need to change, but I'm afraid that personal ownership of vehicles is a genie that we won't be able to put back in the bottle.

 

[aronth5]

When Mars is colonized, will there be school buses?

Gee I hope so, otherwise how will my great, great, great grandchildren get to school?
Oh I forgot you won't need school since ChatGPT will know everything.

 

[kpanda17]

Definitely valid, the concept of checking out a robo for longer term use
Brings up the idea of Robotaxi use options:

Uber for a point to point trip, repeat
Use for multiple trips in a day
Use across multiple days

This becomes a combo of
Uber, Zipcar and Hertz in one platform
Maybe Ford will hold on to their vehicles in the future, not selling to Hertz, but competing with them

Very interesting and mixes up competitive scenarios of:

Toro/uber/rent send my own vehicle
Hertz entering into the Uber space
Tesla, Ford, etc into the Uber/rent space

Insurance coverage becomes very complex

Wow, disruptions everywhere
Just like Elon envisions

 

[uscbucsfan]

The point of the Mars comment was that Robotaxi is so far in the future that these logistical questions are almost irrelevant.

 

[kpanda17]

No one knows how long or how far these disruptions will take to become mainstream

An accelerator could be Ford and/or VW licensing FSD, adding to the perfect code performance pressure on Tesla
Think this would be good pressure beyond the FSD owners and subscribers

 

[RTPEV]

No one knows how long or how far these disruptions will take to become mainstream

Maybe not, but I've been using and monitoring FSD's progress since November of 2021, and based on the rate of improvement (after filtering all the hype out) and knowing how many and where the edge cases are that need to be handled before it works at all (much less become mainstream), my estimate is that it's still quite far in the future.. And yes, I'm aware that these things do take on an S-curve rate of improvement, but I do believe that it's still going to be a very long time before improvement accelerates to a noticeably steeper part of the curve.

 

[kpanda17]

Fair observation

 

[JulienW]

The point of the Mars comment was that Robotaxi is so far in the future that these logistical questions are almost irrelevant.

Exactly, don't expect them before "end of the year". But is that the end of 2020, 2021, 2022? I predict we will all have Robotaxies by end of 2021. After all Elon has never missed a timeline. Let me know how close I am.

 

[Featsbeyond50]

The point of the Mars comment was that Robotaxi is so far in the future that these logistical questions are almost irrelevant.

Are you sure though? Mexico could easily be pumping out a Robotaxi model within 3 years and FSD will be solved by then.

 

[JulienW]

Are you sure though? Mexico could easily be pumping out a Robotaxi model within 3 years and FSD will be solved by then.

Step 1: Announce factory in Mexico in February
Step 2: Break ground

Let me now when they get to Step 2 since you are already on Step 327.

 

[azred]

Exactly, don't expect them before "end of the year". But is that the end of 2020, 2021, 2022? I predict we will all have Robotaxies by end of 2021. After all Elon has never missed a timeline. Let me know how close I am.

Remember Elon’s trip in December 2017 from LA to NY on FSD with no hands on the wheel, no interventions and at least some hands-free, robotic Supercharger stops? It was so long ago, most of you probably forgot.

 

[uscbucsfan]

Are you sure though? Mexico could easily be pumping out a Robotaxi model within 3 years and FSD will be solved by then.

"FSD will be solved by then"="We will colonize Mars by then".

 

[jjrandorin]

The point of the Mars comment was that Robotaxi is so far in the future that these logistical questions are almost irrelevant.

This is like asking something like:

"When we all have flying cars, how will traffic lights work?" or. "when we all are flying around with jetpacks on our back for personal travel, how am I going to carry more than 1 bag of groceries?"

Even if the future of Robotaxi's is only "years" off instead of "decades" surely the time frame of "you cant have your own personal transportation vehicle, you MUST use a robotaxi type device because vehicle ownership is not possible" time frame is multiple decades away.

 

[kpanda17]

Robo will be an option of
1. owning and Ubering out
2. Just owning
3. Or being an Uber hailer, renter

No forcing ending vehicle ownership
BUT
For the next gens, maybe renting is preferred

 

[Featsbeyond50]

Step 1: Announce factory in Mexico in February
Step 2: Break ground

Let me now when they get to Step 2 since you are already on Step 327.

How long did it take them in Shanghai to start pumping out cars from the time they first broke ground? If they repeated that, or came close, and FSD is ready by then... Things could come together quite nicely.