The Future Fund Managing Partner Gary Black has voiced skepticism about Tesla Inc. TSLA maintaining a monopoly in the unsupervised L4/L5 autonomy market.
What Happened: Black, a prominent Tesla bull, expressed his views on X, highlighting a significant difference in opinion between him and other Tesla supporters, including Farzad Mesbahi a former Tesla employee and stockholder, who believes in Tesla’s monopoly in the unsupervised L4/L5 autonomy sector.
Black believes that other companies will achieve and receive approval for unsupervised Level 4/5 autonomy around the same time as Tesla.
Black, pointed out that other companies, such as Baidu Inc. BIDU, Mobileye Global Inc. MBLY, and Alphabet Inc. GOOGL GOOG subsidiary Waymo have already received approval to deploy their autonomous vehicles.
Black also anticipates Tesla to roll out its robotaxi platform region by region, considering the infrastructure and regulatory approvals required.
Black also noted the increasing segmentation between consumer and industrial-strength autonomous vehicles. Black repeatedly referenced a screenshot of Baidu CEO Robin Li stating that Baidu estimates the manufacturing cost of its RT6 Apollo robotaxi, excluding the battery, to be under $30,000.
He questioned the evidence supporting Tesla’s Full Self-Driving capability to drive unsupervised, especially since Baidu and Google have already received robotaxi licenses. He asked, “What evidence do we have that Tesla FSD can drive unsupervised?”
Why It Matters: The debate over Tesla’s autonomous vehicle future is not new. In a recent poll conducted by Black, about 54% of respondents believed that Tesla’s FSD technology would not receive approval until 2026 or later, with only about 9% optimistic about approval by the end of this year. This highlights the skepticism surrounding the timeline for Tesla’s autonomous vehicle deployment.
Adding to the complexity, Alphabet subsidiary Waymo has faced operational challenges, with its autonomous vehicles causing disturbances in San Francisco due to prolonged honking.
In July, Black pointed out that Waymo has received approval to charge for robotaxi rides in several cities. He contends that for Tesla to secure similar approval, the company must prove its effectiveness — matching Waymo’s benchmark of 1 intervention per 17,000 miles — and be prepared to take responsibility for any damages or injuries. Without meeting these standards, Black argues that Tesla will not be granted licenses to operate robotaxi services.
Moreover, Uber Technologies CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has expressed doubts about Tesla’s robotaxi fleet management plans, questioning if car owners would want their vehicles used by strangers. Despite these doubts, Khosrowshahi remains open to potential partnerships with Tesla.
Additionally, Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently confirmed a delay in the robotaxi unveiling event due to an important design change but did not provide a new timeline for the event.
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Image Via Shutterstock
This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Kaustubh Bagalkote
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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