Investor Gary Black of The Future Fund LLC thinks that Tesla Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:TSLA) Robotaxis with a human safety driver on board cost more than rivals like Alphabet Inc.-backed (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Waymo, as well as Baidu Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:BIDU) Apollo Go Robotaxi and Amazon.com Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Zoox.
Human Safety Drivers Cost More
On Monday, user James Stephenson responded to Black by quoting an older reply by Stephenson where he argued that an autonomous car with a safety driver was still an autonomous vehicle if the driver did not intervene in any way throughout the ride.
Black responded to Stephenson by arguing that consumers did not “think of autonomous vehicles as requiring safety monitors.” The investor also said that Tesla would not be able to match the market share of the likes of Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE:UBER) and others “that don’t use safety monitors since the costs will be prohibitive”
“You’re not applying normal consumer logic to this James,” Black said in his response. He added that a safety monitor in the Robotaxi would result in operating costs becoming “far higher” than rivals who would not “need to pay for a hired body in the car.”
JPMorgan Backs Tesla Robotaxi
The comments come as investment bank JPMorgan Chase argued that Tesla’s fleet size of 84 vehicles in Texas across the Dallas, Austin and Houston markets, compared with Waymo’s more than 650 vehicles, was intentional as the EV giant was prioritizing software development and fine-tuning.
Meanwhile, Waymo and Uber reportedly ended their partnership in Phoenix, Arizona, as the ride-hailing giant is also on the lookout for another autonomous vehicle provider to tie up with.
Tesla’s FSD Woes
The Elon Musk-led automaker is facing legal and federal scrutiny following a Texas crash involving a Tesla vehicle that led to a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the family of 76-year-old Martha Avila, who died in the accident.
Separately, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced probes into the incident that took place last week.
The incident also prompted Musk and Tesla AI Lead Ashok Elluswamy to deny the claim that the vehicle was operating on Autopilot at the time of the crash, according to statements from the driver to local law enforcement.
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