WSJ's Tim Higgins on Tesla's Cybercab robotaxi reveal: These kinds of events are for the faithful

Tim Higgins, Wall Street Journal business columnist, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss Tesla's Cybercab event, Elon Musk's timeline for full self-driving vehicles, and more.

[@AudiTTQuattro2003]

If a Robotaxi is so profitable to own and operate, why would Tesla sell them to someone else? Why wouldn't Tesla just manage them themselves? Answer: they aren't that profitable to manage if you pay real salaries and benefits.

[@hyperbitcoinizationpod]

Or, that prospect increases current car sales. Only to withdraw the promise later. This will maximize profit for Tesla. Not very honest, but I think owning an autonomous taxi is highly profitable. He can achieve a monopoly on public transport.

[@danieldimitrov9969]

Pay salaries to who exactly?

[@millbrook7384]

If coke was so profitable, why would they let McDonald's sell it instead of opening their own shop outside? Because Tesla is specialized in innovation and mass production. Not every company is trying to take over every market.

[@MinhVu-in9iz]

Elon said that in 2020, ive heard that one before 😂

[@richardhunter132]

weird how Elon was very specific about the price, but really vague and evasive about other things

[@singed8853]

He’s a snake oil salesman.

[@bobcat718]

Because the aim is to get the price point under $30k for a fully autonomous vehicle. Probably does not want to commit to specs because the main selling point is the price and FSD. Performance is pretty irrelevant, only range will be the important factor

[@AudiTTQuattro2003]

​@@bobcat718...a cult always believes the dear leader, no matter how wrong he is proven to be time and time again.

[@GoldTau-l2d]

See it in 2037

[@DG-hw8it]

I bet production cost will be 1K. 🍀

[@c.romano1428]

Only one person came prepared for this interview

[@royed31]

Never Joe

[@BrianBull]

haha great comment

[@GoldTau-l2d]

Right after HyperLoop

[@ongman1]

The new MAGA mobile. 😅

[@KwabenaDonkor-r9p]

P T Barnum is at it again

[@angelodorsett1]

Fall asleep and wake up at your Final Destination.

[@westerling8436]

I wish they'd make some more of those movies

[@eliopalombi]

The only final destination is a $200 stock price

[@GoldTau-l2d]

💀

[@rioriggs3568]

Fall asleep and never wake up! RIP

[@AudiTTQuattro2003]

...Final Destination, as in a fatal crash in an "edge case" scenario that the AI didn't have sufficient data about?

[@Zax625]

Tesla’s Optimus is walking like a Biden 😅

[@timothyshiu2263]

What kind of insurance available and what kind of insurance coverage? Life? 3rd party?

[@Patrick-yh5yd]

Perfect for Las Vegas but not other cities.

[@kieronimo1]

I'm disappointed that there's no drivable version of this.

[@Asdfasdf-k8v]

Prob will be, they have to change the doors for the consumer version tho.

[@mathijs9365]

Smaller car in 2025. Thats the plan according Q2 financial note. Presenting now means Osborne effect.

[@fodiographer]

@@Asdfasdf-k8v Why would they have to change the doors?

[@Mrking-hf9bx]

No timeline on the robot 🤖

[@droomagon]

when we look back at this video years from now, we'll just laugh and think back how dumb people were, remember how years ago lots of ANALysts were saying competition were coming? annnnnnnnd nope

[@GoldTau-l2d]

I remember also hearing about a hyperloop

[@kussaufnacke988]

you can also laugh at the videos from 10 years ago of elon promising fsd next year... dont be a cultist please

[@DG-hw8it]

Apple failed...

[@covidiotseverywhere2179]

Hello guys: it's sandcastle time. They are apprehensive about him even coming up with the technology. But making the leap from that, to compete with Uber, Lyft and Waymo is not that hard. Great job, speculators

[@m_sedziwoj]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="455">7:35</a> Uber can be fleet operator of this Teslas, but it would not be allow to use they app, only Tesla, so they whole business would collapse.

[@briancase6180]

Did that "little lounge" bit make anyone else cringe just a little? I think we understand; we don't need that to be explained to us....

[@ivantuma7969]

I want one ... with a steering wheel :) I think it would have made this effort more serious if it had a 3-across bench seat. Standard cabs have room for four passengers ... studies show rarely do you see a cab used for more than three, _plus the driver_

[@ArendJanV]

Yesterday’s presentation might be the dumbest thing I’ve seen this year. And that’s saying something.

[@BradleyAmster]

China probably already has this tech built. Probably will be rolled out on the next year while Tesla messes around for the next decade trying to do this. Tesla is becoming a joke. Everything is 2 years out and then it rolls out and there are so many issues. Teslas has a short lifeline they are not the technology leader anymore.

[@walterchung3565]

Elon Musk is horrible at public speaking. No one trust him any more. His credibility is tarnished from his obsessions with Donald Trump and white supremacy.

[@808GT]

Its saying that you havent been watching a lot this year

[@tonysales3687]

I thought it was great, did you see those futuristic vehicles and the bot serving drinks.

[@christophermuckle1920]

Won’t see me driving in one of those.

[@millbrook7384]

won't see anyone driving in one of those, that's the point.

[@TeylorGarcía-k3b]

No more dui

[@BK-cl9ik]

All Elon does is put some show every few months for his cults, so his stock keeps getting artificially propped up.

[@brahmmauer7437]

Down 6%

[@t33sher]

except his current product is the market leader.

[@t33sher]

@@brahmmauer7437 short term, like ur thought process

[@993mike]

Absolutely. His last great thing - the Cybertruck - has become a complete disaster with atrocious build quality and engineering, terrible reliability, and plummeting resale values.

[@words007]

Talk about yourself bri 😂 ​@@993mike. I literally my god literally saw a truck today and saw people literally turning around and stopping from the sidewalk and watch it roll away 😅. Yes, people stop and watch the cybertruck. If it was disaster people would frequently ignore it. Not stop and watch it go by.

[@wbwarren57]

You are rank cowards! Why don’t you say the truth about Tesla!?! Sell! Sell! Sell!

[@fernc7947]

Snake oil

[@ocampbell1954]

Yet as soon as war, environmental disaster and NASA needs help the government runs to Elon to help with Starlink and his inventions.

[@MeditationMindless]

LEFTARD

[@fernc7947]

@@ocampbell1954 Right. giving starlink service when it takes 2 weeks to ship to a disaster zone with no power and need to pay 200 dollars to register. that's helping out for sure

[@Nik-ik8mv]

​@@ocampbell1954And he turns to them for contracts.

[@LarsRyeJeppesen]

@@ocampbell1954 Still snake oil

[@rioriggs3568]

Unsupervised FSD next year... good luck with that!

[@jaysteve4442]

That’s why he’s hitched to trump. Trump will approve everything Elon tells him to.

[@Mostly_bad]

Waymo is not the same tech. Stop referencing it. Dream building is the perfect reference. Dreaming.

[@mattsipes6186]

Yea - it’s not scalable. Tesla will scale.

[@Cool-gk8mc]

@@mattsipes6186 Waymo is real and works as it should. Tesla has PowerPoints. My favorite was one million people on Mars. lol. All he has is a floating trash can ten years later.

[@dkoorse]

@@Cool-gk8mc do u own a tesla?

[@LarsRyeJeppesen]

@@dkoorse Why does it matter? 1 million on Mars is an Elon promise.

[@dkoorse]

@@LarsRyeJeppesen whad does 1 million people on mars have to do with tesla

[@ivantuma7969]

I think the low sale price means high-priced subscription model. Owners of Cybercabs will (maybe) pay-by-the-mile for the FSD features (and it may be market-based depending on the complexity of the local environment). Do I like this kind of buy now - pay later ... No! But it seems to be the direction the automotive industry has been evolving towards.

[@benm5678]

Super unprofessional demo full of promises as usual, while he's falling behind in reality

[@uromvictor]

Im sure the iphone 16 is the type of professional demo you want. Silly you.

[@adastra8218]

U cant make money on a 30k car, but a self driving 30k is money printing

[@UltimatePokeGamer7]

Im’ma buy it and get it working as a taxi service while I’m working on something else

[@ocampbell1954]

Someone with some sense. BYD is making little to nothing on its smaller cars. There is no margins on small cars. Not unless they can find some way to make cheaper batteries

[@AudiTTQuattro2003]

If it is so profitable to operate, why would you sell it? Why wouldn't you just manage a fleet yourself? It is the typical "I will make you rich if you buy my book/seminar/pyramid scheme" pitch only fools fall for.

[@ocampbell1954]

@@AudiTTQuattro2003 That would mean they take on all the maintenance repairs.

[@karatefightfitnessdrills5430]

Tesla will not sell them robo cars to Uber or lyft. Tesla will use them all for robo taxi. 😁

[@gladeous4161]

Why wouldn't they? Tesla gets a cut on every ride. It's to their benefit to have as many robotaxis out there as possible regardless of who operates it.

[@dmkinsey]

Tesla will not sell robo taxis Ever

[@singed8853]

Elon said at the event that these robotaxis will be sold. But he is a snake oil salesman so I understand not believing him.

[@douglasvine2516]

Musk is a con man. He's an over- hype guy that rarely delivers.

[@danieldimitrov9969]

😂 😂 says CNN

[@RandomMZ1412]

You can clearly see Elon struggling to lie. Seems like his pant is on fire

[@mcsq5899]

Musk promised to land a spaceship on mars this year.

[@lynnguyen479]

ít is Amazing . Thank you Elon ❤

[@mikenazers96]

This jerk needs to make everything political.

[@timr32]

The king of bull*h*t ! Trust me bros👎

[@christiaanhetzner1193]

Man put Kernen out to pasture. An embarrassing anachronism

[@MITsolar]

totally unimpressed.....they did it at night so you can't get a good look at it

[@SoniaDiaz-zo4wr]

More hype. He is toxic and caustic and I have a Tesla. He should have presented the updated Model Y and a Model 2.

[@robertmclean2812]

I don't think Tesla will ever solve autonomous cars. I think its beyond them. But tesla will be successful with other products.

[@allannelson5806]

Taxis for cool, young Fascists.

[@AudiTTQuattro2003]

...each Robotaxi scans for illegal immigrants, locks the doors and takes them to the border for deportation.

[@tylp4199]

Woow are you guys talking about investment 😂 not convinced.. Does really people believe this over the top show! Just that he even can't seriously say when it comes out! What a joke this and Ponzi show is!!!!!

[@shawnstangeland3011]

Another cyber flop

[@mingouczjcz3800]

Elon's team spends quite much time on this kind of marketing sham projects. As long as the stock keeps up, the sham just works for its purpose

[@benm5678]

Yea, who cares you can fake it in a hollywood studio...tell us real facts, like how's it progressing with obtaining approval, are they planning to geofence, have a monitoring/assist team? NOTHING! Musk is losing it... mentally & physically he's a mess.

[@stevetaylor20]

Waymo in the lead lol

[@sethgerwitz]

💀

[@MeditationMindless]

They know nothing

[@mcarrusa]

Of course we have to expect NBC to try and poke holes in whatever Elon does…we come here to listen anyway, so shame on us. And these people are acting like Tesla’s full-autonomous is some kind of vaporware-a wish inside an idea. Have they ever experienced supervised FSD? Full autonomous is pretty much here, but for a few more steps. They probably own Teslas themselves and had an FSD ride in to the studio this morning. But once the red light goes on. “No proof that this will work.” Regulatory approval is going to be another matter, however. Agencies will jam him up as long as possible, just like with SpaceX.

[@billselznick586]

He's describing a train. You're in a lounge, fall asleep and wake up at your destination. Thats a damn train. Incredibly forward thinking. And of course, it'll be ready next year. Lol. Why not in 2 weeks like Trump always says. This has become the age of con men.

[@timr32]

That bs cab will not drive the streets of Texas in 10 years!

[@TropicalBeatDown]

At the end of the day the stock may be down today, but everything shown at that event was amazing and will be here eventually.

[@AudiTTQuattro2003]

Sure, but can Tesla be viable long enough to get there?

[@tomorrowsnews3915]

Btw it’s a DWI even if you are parked without the keys in the ignition if you blow over the legal limit. Don’t try to sit in your car to sober up.

[@jennyanydots2389]

If you are parked without the keys in the ignition you can't get a dui. The officer would have to see you driving first, if you just sit in your car you can be drunk... it's not illegal unless an officer sees you operating the vehicle. You are just making crap up to try and sound informed in a youtube comment section. How sad.

[@tomorrowsnews3915]

My friend should have had you for their lawyer with all that knowledge and energy. Go ahead and google “can you get a dui while parked”.

[@KP-xi4bj]

Timelines are negotiable. What's not negotiable are the actual products. Sooner or later, the products will be delivered.

[@ReasonableExpectations]

Mr. Higgins refers to “the faithful” at the 8 minute mark. I’ve watched that group from afar (via social media) for a few years. It’s filled with arrogant and ignorant nobodies who claim to have knowledge and analysis. The core group of influencers on this platform, all of whom interview each other, is a treasure trove of daily mindless hype. With that said, I must remind myself that if followers wish to believe it and place whatever chips they have on the stock, then that’s their personal decision. Postulating a future $30 trillion valuation, which has been endorsed by many, when the MSCI ACWI all world index is worth $78 trillion as of 9/30/24 seems absurd. However, I’ve been wrong before. I’ll just let them dream.

[@pauldannelachica2388]

Sometimes you put a grain of salt

[@kailashjayaraman]

Most garbage presentation - stock deserves a 10% thud

[@ichoudhury007]

Short sighted investors were hoping for a Model 2 which is more affordable model 3 like car with steering wheel and pedals etc. that would sell like hotcakes. Instead they saw robocabs and robovan that are too out there beyond their margin dream. 😆

[@singed8853]

There is nothing ‘too out there’ about them. They are hardware. Anything interesting about them is talk and not reality.

[@TheMagicJIZZ]

That's literally coming next year and it's a smaller model y

[@ChengHao03]

Tesla stock dipped severally , resulting to about 23% drop in the shares value this month. I seriously need suggestions on how to diversify my $400k portfolio made up of volatile TSLA.

[@Friedrich-j3i]

Investing without proper guidance can lead to mistakes and losses. I've learned this from my own experience.If you're new to investing or don't have much time, it's best to get advice from an expert.

[@Magdalena-u7l]

A lot of folks downplay the role of advlsor until being burnt by their own emotions. I remember couple summers back, after my lengthy divorce, I needed a good boost to help my business stay afloat, hence I researched for licensed advisors and came across someone of utmost qualifications. She's helped grow my reserve notwithstanding inflation, from $275k to $850k.

[@JunlaiAiguo3c]

How can one find a verifiable financial planner? I would not mind looking up the professional that helped you. I will be retiring in two years and I might need some management on my much larger portfolio. Don't want to take any chances.

[@Magdalena-u7l]

Nicole Anastasia Plumcan'tlee divulge much... Most likely, the internet should have her basic info, you can research if you like.

[@JunlaiAiguo3c]

Thanks for sharing. I curiously searched for her full name and her website popped up immediately. I looked through her credentials and did my due diligence before contacting her.

[@phvaguiar]

Elon is amazing

[@fred-n6f]

The D, in DUI stands for driving ...mr maga

[@glassesstapler]

Buhahaha

[@royed31]

But I like driving and when I get a taxi I like to talk to the driver

[@sethgerwitz]

Then pay more to get a human driver in an uber or Lyft!

[@meehanasap]

Lol.

[@PSSavant]

Vs. Flying taxis which will actually save you time and you can take a nap at your destination instead.

[@valdefortis8512]

Probably not? Absolutely Not. Tesla already lost on this race - EM needs to focus on other things ....

[@rickhayes-oh2zm]

China will make them for 20000