Will you share your Tesla?

[voyager]

Perhaps this poll is not properly formulated.
What if Tesla would introduce some sort of car sharing program, in which (say 10 to 20) people use one Tesla... would you be interested then?

You don't own the car, needn't purchase one.
You pay for the miles and hours you spent in the car.

 

[Carl]

Sharing a car with strangers is beyond stupid if you ask me. I don't need some drunk teenager vomiting in my car, or someone lighting up a joint and hotboxing it, or some lawyer dragging a prostitute into the back seat. Plus, in the unfortunate event that the person borrowing it used it for a crime, the vehicle would likely be impounded and I would not get it back for a long time, if ever.

If you change the word sharing with renting, what changes?

And what's this with lawyers ? Are they known for this type of conduct, where you live ?

 

[hmmm]

In Valet Mode only.

Just kidding. No way.

 

[Gerasimental]

Glad to see so many 'no's. More demand for mine.

 

[brantse]

No way in HELL would I rent out my expensive new car (when I get my 3) to some jackass who wants to joy ride unsupervised (or even supervised) in it! This has got to be the most damn ridiculous idea I've seen on these forums.

I would have said the same thing a few months ago, but then I put my car up to rent on Turo and have tasted the fruit...now I'm hooked. It's extremely profitable and fully insured. In two weeks of rentals, I have more than paid for two months of my car payment. At first I was very nervous if anyone tried to rent my car, but now I'm hoping more rentals come in.

I completely agree with the mentality that a car is someone's personal property and understand not wanting to share it with strangers. If you can afford it, that's absolutely your prerogative. That said, if you're willing to do so, it can be very rewarding.

 

[Hans Allis]

I would have said the same thing a few months ago, but then I put my car up to rent on Turo and have tasted the fruit...now I'm hooked. It's extremely profitable and fully insured. In two weeks of rentals, I have more than paid for two months of my car payment. At first I was very nervous if anyone tried to rent my car, but now I'm hoping more rentals come in.

I completely agree with the mentality that a car is someone's personal property and understand not wanting to share it with strangers. If you can afford it, that's absolutely your prerogative. That said, if you're willing to do so, it can be very rewarding.

Exactly what I'm hoping to experience in about 2 months from now. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Ludus]

It's worth noting that Mobility App fleets like Uber need to saturate a market so users can get a ride reasonably quickly (or they won't use the app). Tesla owners are pretty widely dispersed. So for a long time when Tesla sets up a Mobility App service area most of the cars will be company owned....so the add your car to the fleet option won't be available in most places anyway for quite awhile and where it is it won't be very important to the functioning of the system.

There is a possible market for app features that are different from current ride share apps. Like sharing in a limited circle of friends and family you choose. That could work anywhere self driving vehicles are legal without needing a full scale fleet like Uber style service. It might apply to kids in a family, car pools and just extend to any situation people want limited shared use.

Limited sharing might or might not involve any payment.

 

[voyager]

It's worth noting that Mobility App fleets like Uber need to saturate a market so users can get a ride reasonably quickly (or they won't use the app). Tesla owners are pretty widely dispersed.

Interesting... will there ever be a lease-purchase program in which you can use your Tesla for ride services?

 

[tinm]

I don't plan to ever share or rent my car. I also intend to continue to OWN my car, not have some sort of End User License Agreement with Tesla giving me permission to "use" my car while Tesla owns it, kind like the difference between OWNing a book and having a EULA allowing you to read (but not share) a Kindle ebook.

Think about it: we all know Teslas are computers on wheels. Even if you buy the car for cash, at some point it's basically a piece of hardware that is worthless without the software, and it is starting to become clear that you are not going to own the software and the functionality that the software brings. That'll be Tesla's. We're there already, sorta, but it's no big deal. Yet.

I worry that the DNA of Silicon Valley is going to finally show through with Tesla in the coming years: and from Tesla's perspective it does look tantalizing. Who needs auto dealers at all if there are vast fleets of Tesla robo cars making the rounds? All you need is a smartphone and a credit card and you can bop all over town or to anywhere, someone's Tesla will take you. So ends the whole auto dealer controversy.

But the price we pay for this shiny future is a car that is tethered to the mothership of Tesla, and under Tesla's control, and, face it, if so ordered by the government or law enforcement, suddenly under their control, including by mistake. Great technology, but at the price of a big chunk of freedom and independence.

No, I think I will just drive my increasingly clunker pre-AI, pre-AP, pre-Parking Sensors model S.

And I say this as someone who has a 3 on order (which will be my wife's car).

 

[sillydriver]

What if Tesla would introduce some sort of car sharing program, in which (say 10 to 20) people use one Tesla... would you be interested then?

Your post highlights the possibility of different ownership models between 1) rent out the car that you purchased in its entirety and 2) rent random cars from a taxi/limo/Uber-type company whose cars are autonomous. The model you propose reminds me of the popular (with the .01%) fractional Jet ownership model of Netjets and the like. There could also be a "jet card" like model where you prepay for some number of hours of use, which would have a lower cost per hour than the pure rental Uber model and would provide some cashflow that would help the rental system company buy the cars. However, since cars are vastly cheaper than private jets, I expect the most popular model would be pure taxi-like rental/Uber model by the hour and mile. A subsidiary of Tesla would own the cars, just as Solar City exists to own the panels and sell their power to the homeowners. And because of this similarity between the two, Tesla / Elon Musk already has experience with such a model.

 

[Skotty]

I think ride sharing (as in sharing your "ride", whether you are in it or not) might be more a hippy California thing. I don't mean that to sound negative, just that it probably won't be popular in many places. I sure wouldn't do it. Not unless I had a cheap car dedicated to the task, like a rental car.

The real issue I have with all of this, is Elon making it sound like it's the thing everyone will do, and that is what will make the M3 the "cheap" car for the masses. It's great the M3 will be down to $35K, but dismissing the idea of possibly working on a cheaper car after the M3 on the premise that everyone will just share their M3s to make it even more affordable is a poor position to take. Frankly, I'd rather see Elon and Tesla come out and say bluntly "Hey, we just don't want to make cheaper cars than the M3; we will let the rest of the industry work on that."

 

[kmtl]

I wouldn't share my primary car just like I won't AirBnB my home - the systems that protects my interest would be so restrictive and expensive that it wouldn't pay out.

If the payout were there I would consider investing in a dedicated vehicle to put in a system, or an investment in fleet system.

Far more interesting to me though is the NetJets (fractional ownership) model mentioned above. The best part of NetJets is that you get a fairly consistent experience (within a type fleet the aircraft are identical, clean and presented the same way) and when you have unusual trip need you can bump up or down to a different type. AND, you don't have to buy the whole aircraft and manage and pay for crew and maintenance. It's expensive compared to chartering but the product is better in general terms. Between Uber, rentals and full ownership I think there is room for a 'fleet membership' model. But, the fleet needs to include more variety - give me an S or 3 most of the time, but include minivans, pickups and pure sports cars so I don't have to own them all to cover my needs. If this could happen at 80% of my current total vehicle spending I'd consider it a huge win.

 

[Sasmania]

I, along with millions of others around the world rent out even more expensive things to complete strangers....our vacation properties and personal homes. Guess what? That industry has boomed for good reason. I'm pretty surprised how afraid everyone seems to be of the human race...ok, wait, maybe I'm not

By the same prevailing logic as above, you should never even drive. You could be in an accident. You could die. Might as well stay bunkered in your house where no one can get you. LOL. Sad. It's just a possession. It can be cleaned.

Sharing your Tesla will help the world get off ICE faster, reduce pollution and help others get around. I for one, am happy to help the cause. I'm sure there will be plenty of others that will too, despite the many that won't. In fact, the majority that won't will make it more profitable for the ones that do choose to share, so everyone wins! Here's to personal choice!

 

[Sonny Daze]

Not a chance.

 

[voyager]

Kick up...

 

[Dstrohl]

There have been several entirely different things being discussed here, and I would have different answers for each:

1. Sharing (loaning my car to another known person who will drive it where they want and do what they want, within the bounds of a verbal and probably unspoken contract to not "mess it up".). I would with the right person, I don't know who that is offhand, but if I know and trusted them with my car. I would be OK doing it.
2. Fractional ownership (10-20 people all owning the car and each using it over time.) This is an ownership scheme and I think it can be a good one, though 10-20 people for 1 car wont work well probably unless it is purely a "pleasure" car. I would think that 10-20 people for 5-10 cars would probably work more realistically. I would not be adverse to this, but it would take some doing to set it up to work fairly.
3. Tesla Network (my car leaving my house when I am not using it, by itself, to pick up a stranger and deliver them somewhere, without them having the ability to control or mess with the car.) I would have the same worries as have been already brought up about all sorts of things in terms of vandalizing the car, throwing up in the car, etc... but if I did something like this, I would approach it like a business. I would not do it with my personal car, but I might purchase several model 3's and put them in the Tesla network if it seemed like it would make money. This would come down to a cost / benefit analysis though, and personally, I don't see this happening anytime sooner than 5-10 years out (purely from political and social roadblocks)
4. Rental (like Turo), I'm not sure about this one. I'm not 100% against it, but I do need my car to get around. however losing it for a weekend here or there and covering my monthly payment is pretty compelling. I'm glad to hear that it's working out for brantse.

 

[Dstrohl]

The model you propose reminds me of the popular (with the .01%) fractional Jet ownership model of NetJets and the like. There could also be a "jet card" like model where you prepay for some number of hours of use,

There have been lots of other cases of fractional ownership over the years, many of which work out fine (and some crash and burn), and for lots of things that are closer in cost or even lower than the Jetcards or NetJets programs. As a pilot I know many of the smaller planes are owned by multiple people who share them, and those are often priced at around the same range as the top of the line Tesla's (or sometimes lower). I have also seen it for boats and RV's. No to mention the ever famous "time share" condos and vacation properties.

However, I think this would have to be looked at a bit differently... many people go to work at about the same time every day, so, unless all the owners didn't need it for work, or worked at different times (or worked / lived in the same general location), it would fail pretty quickly.

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

Maybe in ten years.

 

[voyager]

So far 89 people responded... Let's make it at least 100, shall we?

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

This whole thing is a bunch of make believe.

It's so Tesla can introduce a business case model which is great for them, but it's not reflective of the consumer at all. As evidence look at the poll result. Why in the world would a person with a $100K share it out?

The plan is about Tesla's network which means they're going to get a cut of the profit. Odds are they'll have lots of cars within the network which brings down any money you make on your car. It will quickly get to the point where you won't make diddly squat on it even if you did go for it.