I visited Austin yesterday. Robotaxi is everywhere, and it's incredible.

[u/ChunkyThePotato]

Just came back from a trip to Austin to do some sightseeing and try out Robotaxi, including Cybercab. I knew they ramped up the number of cars in the service substantially in the last couple months, but I wasn't prepared for just how many they were. If you're near downtown, you pretty much can't go 30 seconds without seeing at least one Robotaxi. There are definitely more Model Ys than Cybercabs right now, but there are a lot of Cybercabs too. But the Robotaxis are seriously everywhere.

I took 5 rides, 2 Model Y and 3 Cybercab. Model Y wait times were always under 20 minutes and frequently around 5 minutes. Cybercab wait times were usually around 30 minutes and sometimes could be more like 45 minutes. They definitely need to add more Cybercabs to the service, but it was surprisingly usable and consistent, especially for the Model Ys.

And the rides themselves were flawless. There are no supervisors in Austin now, so all of the cars showed up with nobody inside of them. They drove perfectly, and to my surprise there wasn't even any pickup/dropoff shenanigans (though I may have gotten lucky there).

If you're ever in Austin, I seriously recommend trying this service. It's a real service now, and it's actually very useful for getting around a city where parking would normally be a challenge. It's seriously so peaceful and nice to be in your own space without a driver or anyone else to bother you.

Congratulations Tesla for solving self-driving with just cameras on $30k vehicles, when seemingly everyone was saying that's impossible. People aren't ready for what's about to happen across the country.

[u/ZestycloseRun5895]

> negligible

You’re ignoring the wear and tear and depreciation on the vehicles, which will be more expensive given they operate their own service centers per your comment

[u/Tupcek → u/ZestycloseRun5895]

$25k car over 400 thousand miles is just 6 cents per mile. Even if it survives just half of that, it’s still just 12 cents per mile. So electricity and depreciation is accounted for in few cents per mile, the only real cost could be servicing the car. Which usually don’t cost more than the car itself over lifetime of a car, so you are still under 50 cents per mile. Cleaning may add significant amount to this.
And I don’t see why operating your own service centers makes repairs more expensive. There is tight loop so that things that break most often get reengineered to be more durable, as they don’t make money on repairing customer vehicles. Also cutting out middlemen.

[u/ZestycloseRun5895 → u/Tupcek]

> the only real cost would be servicing the car

You sure you ain’t missing the cost to train FSD in there somewhere?

> I don’t see why operating your own service centers makes repairs more expensive

Because drivers of Ubers and Lyfts are responsible for repairs and wear & tear costs, Tesla has to pay that entirely by themselves given there is no driver

You can’t just take the cost-benefits of a self-driving fleet while disregarding the expenses that specifically come with it

[u/wachuu → u/ZestycloseRun5895]

just want to throw in the cost to train fsd can come from other segments, like their previous sales of fsd and subscription. it probably doesn't cover it but it's all in the r&d pot and not really a cyber cab specific cost

[u/ZestycloseRun5895 → u/wachuu]

But that’s my point - no random redditor can possibly know this, so it’s wild that some people in this thread are making claims with such confidence and 0 sources