From Futurism · Victor Tangermann · · 1m 20s
Tesla wants you to buy its money printer
Tesla is pitching Cybercab fleets to investors, and the pitch has a hole in the middle of it.
In brief
Tesla is pitching Cybercab fleets to investors, and the pitch has a hole in the middle of it. If a Cybercab fleet really printed money, Tesla would run it itself instead of selling you the cars. Originally reported by Futurism.
A car with obvious holes
The 2024 Cybercab reveal showed a gold two-seat coupé with no charging port and a $30,000 price. Sleek, but the basic questions went unanswered.
Now Tesla wants buyers
The first Cybercabs are on Austin streets, and Tesla is circulating a "Robotaxi interest form" aimed at people willing to buy a whole fleet.
The infinite money glitch
Electrek's Fred Lambert put it bluntly: a genuinely profitable fleet is one you keep for yourself. Selling the how-to book is what people do when the glitch does not work.
“if running a fleet of Cybercabs were actually profitable, Tesla wouldn't sell you a single one”
You own the downside
Tesla controls the network, the software, the prices, and the revenue split. Fleet owners carry the capital cost and the depreciation, on cars that already depreciate fast.
“you don't own a business in that arrangement. You own the downside.”
FSD already ran this play
Owners paid up to $15,000 for Full Self-Driving, now $99 a month, for software still tied to fatal crashes. Tesla has repeatedly argued the driver was at fault.
Cameras only, regulators watching
The Cybercab drives on cameras alone, an approach experts call fundamentally flawed. NHTSA has opened a probe into whether it meets federal safety standards.
What it means
If a Cybercab fleet really printed money, Tesla would run it itself instead of selling you the cars.
