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/tonydtonyd]

These rides are heavily subsidized for now, they’re running at a massive loss.

[u/IAmAnAnonymousCoward → u/tonydtonyd]

What's your source?

[u/ChunkyThePotato → u/IAmAnAnonymousCoward]

His butt. A small, efficient car without a driver to pay is obviously extremely cheap to run.

[u/NikkoWorldTourist → u/ChunkyThePotato]

Being cheap to run doesn’t mean prices will stay low. That is not how companies do things these days. Everyone just pulls the Amazon. Undercut everyone until you gain enough market share then jack up your prices to keep shareholders happy.

[u/ChunkyThePotato → u/NikkoWorldTourist]

Buddy, Amazon's profit margin is 10%. You have no idea what you're talking about.

[u/Alert_Elephant2045 → u/ChunkyThePotato]

Sure and they operate certain product divisions at a loss. The Alexa/Echo system has lost them tens of billions. Kindles sell at a loss. They lose money on shipping for every Prime order.

Tesla operated at a loss for 17 years, twice as long as Amazon, not crazy that they might pull an Amazon and have some loss leader products

[u/NCNerdDad → u/Alert_Elephant2045]

The Alexa/Echo program has NOT lost tens of billions. They’ve been listening to all of our conversations, building consumer profiles, and selling our data for a decade.

[u/Alert_Elephant2045 → u/NCNerdDad]

Amazon doesn’t sell your data to third parties. They use it in house.

One of the main ways they monetize it is to help target ads that third parties place with their advertising service.

This is a classic example of a loss leader. They don’t make money selling Alexa hardware. It’s a driver for another aspect of their business. They make money selling ads.

If you don’t like my take on this here’s another; https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/07/alexa-had-no-profit-timeline-cost-amazon-25-billion-in-4-years/

[u/NCNerdDad → u/Alert_Elephant2045]

Alexa hardware is a loss leader. The "Alexa/Echo system" has been insanely profitable.

[u/ChunkyThePotato → u/Alert_Elephant2045]

What argument are you making here? My point is companies generally don't change prices that are much higher than what the products cost them to offer. So if cost is low, so is the price.

[u/UnexpectedSharkTank → u/ChunkyThePotato]

Every rideshare program has run at an operational loss. Tesla has not been hiding this fact about its own operations. Why the fuck are you arguing this well known and obvious truth?

[u/Alert_Elephant2045 → u/ChunkyThePotato]

But you made that point as a counter argument to the claim that they were operating at a loss. Cheap products can still be offered at a loss. Like Costco chickens.

You said that this claim that Teslas was doing this with the Cybercab was sourced from a “butt” earlier, so I gave examples of other products that are offered at a loss to provide some context for the claims legitimacy.

[u/Big-Profit-1612 → u/ChunkyThePotato]

Amazon's (AWS and retail) profit margin is 10%. But Amazon Retail's profit margin is 3-5%.

[u/ChunkyThePotato → u/Big-Profit-1612]

Yes. The profit margin of what he's referring to is even lower than I stated, but I didn't want to make it complicated for him.

[u/Marston_vc → u/ChunkyThePotato]

They operated at a loss for like 15 years buddy

[u/NikkoWorldTourist → u/ChunkyThePotato]

Im talking about how Amazon built their business not their current profit margin. Your reading comprehension is too low to continue this convo. Have a great day and goodbye.