electric robotaxis

Tesla & Robotaxi Economics: The Network That Optimizes The Machine

There is a long-standing argument about whether Tesla is a car company or a tech company. This argument is typically made in the context of how Wall Street should value the company. If Tesla is just a new kind of carmaker, it should be valued at something significantly less than its annual revenue — maybe 25% to 50%, like Ford and GM. Alternatively, if Tesla is a tech company, then it could be valued significantly higher. Google, for example, is trading at about 6 times its revenues today, Facebook at 8, Microsoft at 9, and Salesforce at 10 times. Tesla trades at around 3 times its revenues with some profits, while Uber and Lyft trade around 4 times revenues and have never been profitable.

Who Will Benefit In The Robotaxi Revolution?

As self-driving cars move closer and closer to reality, one particular market stands to benefit — autonomous taxis (aka robotaxis). Tasha Keeny from Ark Invest recently evaluated the players who’d likely benefit from this massive market opportunity. Keeney writes, “Autonomous vehicles will transform personal mobility … reap[ing] the benefits of a new market which promises to ramp from essentially $0 now to $10 trillion in global gross annual revenues by 2030.”

Tesla Model 3 & Model Y Are Legitimately Disruptive — What Should Automakers Do?

The world is changing. It always is, but the change is particularly dramatic right now in certain technology sectors. To a normal person’s eyes, changes in the auto industry may seem only incremental. Cars are getting a bit more “connected,” more people are using 21st century taxis from Uber and Lyft (please don’t call this ridesharing), and some people are driving electric cars. But we ain’t seen nothing yet.