How fitting for Elon Musk to debut his new robocab on the set of the Warner Studios where fake sets are the norm. This was where Musk was going to provide more details on his effort to deliver driverless cars for use as taxis, a promise he first made in 2016 to launch in 2018.
At the event he promised full self-driving taxis will be available next year for $30,000 each. But, it’s hard to know why anyone takes him seriously anymore. Coincidentally, that was the same price he promised for his Cybertruck that ended up at $100,000. He’s constantly making promises that ago unfulfilled, yet each time he does, the press dutifully reports it as fact. But investors weren’t fooled and the stock dropped nine percent the next day. Analysts have caught up with his lying and exaggerations, but not so much the press.
Musk’s claim to fame, of course, was building the first and most successful electric car, the Tesla. Like SpaceX, he didn’t start the company, but was an investor, threw the founders out, and made himself CEO. More and more see through his fake facade and realize he’s more of a clown showman than a real businessman. He’s ridden on the backs of others and government funding to create his empire. But he’s showing his true self and how despicable he really is by promoting anti-semites on his platform X, telling his trans daughter that he considers her dead to him, and funding millions into Trump’s campaign. Birds of a feather, I suppose.
Musk is getting lots of help from the media that is failing to do more than echo his message, much in the way it’s failing in reporting the presidential election, treating the bizarre as normal. Here’s an example of how this new event was covered by Reuters:
CEO Elon Musk showcased on Thursday a long-awaited robotaxi with two gull-wing doors and no steering wheel or pedals and surprised with robovan, betting on a shift in focus from low-priced mass-market cars to robotic vehicles. At a glitzy unveiling, Musk reached the stage in a “Cybercab” to be produced from 2026 — eventually in high volume — and priced under $30,000. He then introduced the robovan which can carry up to 20 people though offered few further details.
But Musk, who has a record of missing projections — and himself said he tended to be optimistic with time frames — did not say how quickly Tesla could ramp up robotaxi production, clear inevitable regulatory hurdles or implement a business plan to leapfrog robotaxi rivals such as Alphabet’s Waymo.
Anyone in product design would look at what he showed vs what he is promising and immediately find a huge disconnect. And that might explain why four of his executives that all report to him at Tesla all resigned shortly before the event.
As tech columnist John Gruber noted, “Even with the disclaimer of Musk’s “record of missing projections”, this is far too much credence. The availability dates, the prices — they’re all just made up. It’s a complete distraction from the fact that Tesla is way behind. Waymo is actually operating in four cities today. Somewhere in San Francisco or Austin, there’s probably a Daring Fireball reader reading this post while riding in a self-driving Waymo.”
“Wake me up when Tesla ships any of these vehicles. Until then, stop using the present tense about any of it. It’s all vaporware for now. “(And the stock market isn’t buying it — on a day when markets are flat, Tesla is down 8 percent as I type. UPDATE: It closed down close to 9 percent for the day.)”
Lastly, how dumb is it to build a taxi that has just two seats? The press continues to treat Musk as a genius, yet there’s a better argument that he is a charlatan, today’s PT Barnum.