Last year Waymore entered a deal with Hyundai to provide RoboTaxis.
So Tesla won’t have a lock on RoboTaxis. This market segment will be competitive just like personal EVs.
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This is easy, yet hard to understand. On the one hand, self-driving taxi’s might be an existential threat to the Uber/Lyft business model. On the other hand, they are in an asset-light (almost asset-non-existent) business, a toll-taker on a draw bridge using someone else’s drawbridge.
Getting into the “we own the metal” part of the industry is diametrically the opposite of that, and is an entirely different business. Suddenly they’re in the deadhead, daily cleaning, auto maintenance, insurance, etc. end of things - and even if Rivian/Hyundai/whoever takes that part, it’s still an entirely different calculation than what they’re used to.
A few businesses manage such a transition successfully (WalMart into groceries, for example) but most don’t.
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