Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast. This is a show where we discuss the critical crossroads, the Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company, and Neurolink. I'm your host, Will Walden. I have always found this interesting. 54% of you that listen to this show regularly haven't yet subscribed to it. So can I ask you a favor before
we start this episode? If you'd like the show and you'd like what we do here and want to support us, the free and easy way that you can do that is by hitting the subscribe button. And my commitment to you is that if you do that, I'll do everything in my power to make the show better every single episode. Listen to your feedback, find new and interesting topics, and continue doing the show for you.
Thank you so much. So what if Tesla's long promised self driving taxis actually hit the streets this year? How would their new humanoid robot fit into the company's future plans? And with Tesla's revenue slowing down a little bit, could these projections be the key to
turning things around? On Wednesday, the company confirmed it intends to roll out its robotaxi business and begin pilot production of its Optimus robot in 2025, marking a major step in its expansion beyond just electric vehicles. Elon Musk described autonomous ride hailing as essential to the company's future. Speaking at an earnings call, he said Tesla is confident it will launch an unsupervised Full Self Driving FSD service in Austin, TX as early as June.
Now, unlike Tesla's current driver assist system, this version would not require human oversight, making it one of the most ambitious attempts at a fully autonomous ride hailing ServiceNow. Musk also predicted that Tesla's robotaxi operations would expand to California later this year, with additional markets to follow. However, fully autonomous services face significant regulatory hurdles, especially in states like California where existing laws require very strict testing and approval
processes. Despite this, Musk's timeline suggests Tesla is pushing ahead aggressively with its self driving ambitions. Now. Tesla's Robotaxi is an autonomous ride hailing vehicle designed to operate without a human driver. Unlike conventional cars, it will lack a steering wheel and pedals, making it fully reliant on Tesla's FSD system.
The company plans to integrate the Robotaxi into its broader self driving ecosystem, offering a service where Tesla owners can deploy their vehicles for ride sharing when not in use. The concept aligns with Elon's long standing vision of turning Tesla vehicles into revenue generating assets, allowing owners of Teslas to earn money by lending their cars to the
fleet. Now the Robotaxi will be based on Tesla's upcoming Cyber Cab, a purpose built autonomous vehicle set to enter mass production in 2026. Initial development and deployment will begin in Austin, TX, with expansions to California and other markets following soon after. And Tesla stated that its FSD system is improving towards exceeding human safety levels. Though the company has faced regulatory scrutiny over its self driving claims. And it's successful.
Though the Robotaxi network could significantly disrupt the ride hailing industry by offering low cost transportation without the expense of paying humans. Now, beyond autonomous taxis, Tesla's reformation of its commitment to introducing more affordable EVs. The company stated that the production of these lower cost models would begin in the first half of 2025.
Rather than using an entirely new manufacturing process, these vehicles will incorporate elements from both Tesla's existing platforms and next generation designs. They will also be built on the same assembly lines as the company's current models, allowing Tesla to scale production way more efficiently than building its new line now. Tesla's earning report painted kind of a mixed picture of the
company's financial health. The company generated $25.7 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2023, a 2% increase from the previous year but short of analysts expectations of 27.1 billion. Meanwhile, net income fell sharply, dropping 71% to 2.3 billion. The decline in profitability reflects several challenges, including price cuts on Tesla vehicles and rising competition
in the EV market. But despite the financial slowdown, Tesla's stock price rose more than 4% in after hours trading following the earnings announcements. Some investors appear more focused on Tesla's long term projects, such as its Full Self Driving Business and robotics division, than on its recent financial struggles. Analysts have noted that the company's ability to commercialize autonomous technology and robotics could be a deciding factor in its future success.
Now, Tesla's Optimist Humanoid Robot, another project set for development in 2025, is designed to handle tasks inside Tesla factories before being introduced to broader applications. Musk said the company plans to produce about a several 1000 units next year, marking a major step toward automation and Tesla's manufacturing operations. Long term goal is for optimist to perform a wide range of tasks, with Musk even suggesting that it could eventually play the piano and get this thread a
needle. I can't even do that and I'm a human. It's really hard. If you could do that, leave me a comment in the the podcast platform that you're on right now. Tell me that you can thread a needle. I know it's I can do it, but it takes a little time. Now. The introduction of Optimist raises questions about the role of humanoid robots in industrial
settings, though. Tesla is betting that automation will increase efficiency and reduce labor costs, but the effectiveness of robots and complex tasks remains uncertain. If successful, Optimus could expand beyond Tesla's own factories and be marketed to other industries, potentially transforming how repetitive or physically demanding jobs are performed. Now the company's push into robotics is part of all of Elon and Tesla's broader vision of AI
driven automation. Tesla's been developing AI software not just for self driving cars, but also for robots that can function in dynamic environments. Critics have raised concerns about whether Tesla can deliver on his ambitious promises given the complexity of EI driven robotics. But as we all know, Elon has given us pretty much everything that he's said in the past. His promises, they've been pretty fulfilled and maybe slower than what he said in the beginning, but nonetheless
they're coming to fruition. And while Tesla continues to develop self driving and robotics, its current FSD system remains under scrutiny. Company describes a software as an evolving system. It's, I mean, it's software. I'm a software developer. I understand this. You have an alpha, a really pre alpha. You keep building up and that's why people scrutinize it because they don't understand software development.
It's evolving and eventually it'll improve towards ultimately exceeding human levels of safety. However, Tesla's also faced regulatory investigations and lawsuits over past claims about the capabilities of full self driving. Elon does like to embellish a little bit. Let's let's be honest here, if we are a fan of Elon or not, he likes to embellish. And you know, he usually backs it up.
So now the National Hwy. Traffic Safety Administration and HTSA has launched multiple probes into crashes involving Tesla vehicles operating under FSD in autopilot modes. And despite these challenges, Musk has remained steadfast in his belief that Tesla's FSD technology will define the company's future. He's repeatedly argued that autonomy will transform Tesla's financial model during his vehicles into assets instead of just cars.
Think about this for a second. When you're at work, say if you work in an office or even if you work at home and you have, let's just say a normal 8 hour shift, you're not going to drive your car for those eight hours. Why not send it out into the fleet, earn some money from your vehicle while you're stuck in your office? You know, for emergencies,
that's not the best thing. But if you're in an office and, or wherever you are, if you're going to take a plane ride for a week, you know, if you're going to be out of town for a week, then of course use your car so you can make that money back for your trip. There's a possibility that you could make a little bit extra too. But if the robotaxi service succeeds, it could disrupt Uber, It could disrupt Lyft. You know, Uber Eats could be a
thing of the past. You know, all the, the gig workers out there, instead of going to buy groceries and drive around for Instacart, you might just have to go like have your Tesla go to the store and somebody from Instacart or somebody from the store packs up the Tesla sends it off to the house. Oh, that's, that's going to be the best grocery delivery from a Tesla.
It just, you just go out there, you open up the car with your phone with a, you know, Instacart app, open up the car with that and then you get your groceries out of it. There you go totally, totally self driving and totally hands off, no human contact. That would be pretty great. Now Tesla's approach to full self driving, though it differs from competitors like Waymo and Cruise, which rely on high definition maps and Lidar sensors for navigation.
Tesla has a vision based system. They use cameras and neural networks to interpret real world driving conditions. They want to make it as human like as possible. It's a loud Tesla to develop a scalable solution, but it's also resulted in challenges related to accuracy and safety. But once they figure it out I think it'll be completely fine. It's much better than most of the other.
Basically the other ones are lane assist at this point that's pretty much all they are and full self driving basically drives your car for you. It's going to be critical in the next few months though for Tesla with a roll out of the robotaxi. It's going to be very limited roll out of the robotaxi, by the way. But if you're in Austin, TX, go go, go get the Tesla app and get a taxi.
That'll be really cool. Now, optimist robot production, thousands on the line, thousands of robots coming off the line. I should say it's going to be a change for for Tesla. They're not just an automaker anymore and they haven't been for a long time. Elon even stated something in the long lines of if you think Tesla's an auto, make her, you're mistaken and you're Dumber. So something along those lines. I can't remember the exact quote, but he was pretty blunt about it.
But their expansion into robotics, robot taxis is a major shift in business for Tesla. Because remember in the beginning they were a green little electric car startup? That's why we all fell in love with Tesla with Tesla, right? Nice little, nice little car. Nice little electric car goes fast, zippy, and is a little more green than buying gas. And now look at it. It's grown tremendously. Let me know in the comments what you think. I want to hear your opinions on this.
And if these projects succeed, though, they could position Tesla at the forefront of all autonomous transportation and industrial automation as well. Everybody on the line right now is doing industrial work, like piece work or tasks that be that are repeated. Those people could get replaced by autonomous Tesla robots. So just be warned, people that are out there that are working industrial jobs that are
repeatable. I know that big corporations, and this is just AI and of course Tesla robots are using AI, but AI has replaced lower to mid level software developers and a bunch of top tech companies. Recently, all those developers got fired or moved around. So if you're on the line and you know Tesla robots are coming for your job, just be ready to pivot to something else. Get something started, get a side hustle. Then from that side hustle, maybe make that into your job.
I don't know. Anyway, that's pretty much it for now, everybody. Tesla can overcome this technological leap, though. The financial hurdles and regulatory hurdles are just that. They're just hurdles. The regulatory red tape and Tesla, they're going to roll them out and it's going to be an amazing future. Hey, thank you so much for listening today. I really do appreciate your
support. If you could take a second and hit this subscribe or the follow button on whatever podcast platform that you're listening on right now, I greatly appreciate it. It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never miss an episode. And each episode is about 10 minutes or less to get you caught up quickly. And please, if you want to support the show even more, go to patreon.com/stagezero and please take care of yourselves and each other and I'll see you tomorrow.