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A Former Tesla Bull Says Elon Musk’s Robotaxi Promises Keep Falling Short. 'Every Goal From Elon Is By The End Of The Year'

NoseRepresentative | 2026-01-28 14:14 | 661 views

Comments (92)
Free_Range_Lobster 2026-01-28 14:15

Every goal from Elon is by the end of year 10 years ago.

ComicsEtAl 2026-01-28 14:19

Nothing gets by these guys…

AutismFlavored 2026-01-28 14:19

Always has been.

Musicman1972 2026-01-28 14:20

COVID was probably the only time I could have seen robtaxis being big business. And obviously FSD was in full swing then as per his promises... oh hold on.

Mister_Green2021 2026-01-28 14:29

Don't forget we'll go to Mars next year.

winfredjj 2026-01-28 14:37

stock will move only if it is same year

Mother_Idea_3182 2026-01-28 14:39

Following a plan that ignores Maths, Physics and common sense. All build using the castle on the cloud as foundation.

MushroomFondue 2026-01-28 14:42

He's just figuring this out NOW? He's in on the grift.

Difficult_Limit2718 2026-01-28 14:45

No, he's just already got his exit secured

CivilWay1444 2026-01-28 14:46

Rich baby says what?

CoolerRon 2026-01-28 14:47

Waymo seems to be doing, well, waymo betta

Redacted_Bull 2026-01-28 14:48

Not even then. You'd still have to disinfect them after every ride.

bobi2393 2026-01-28 14:48

Last year he was saying FSD Unsupervised by May, and later said Robotaxi without supervision by June. But subsequent targets do all seem end-of-year based.

Smartimess 2026-01-28 14:53

Can“t wait for the headlines when Optimusk robots ripping the dicks off these "bulls".

stoverex 2026-01-28 14:54

Weren’t there supposed to be cities on Mars by now?

[deleted] 2026-01-28 15:04

[deleted]

Doogie1x13 2026-01-28 15:04

Or the year after.

Redacted_Bull 2026-01-28 15:05

So you're expecting customers to do the disinfecting for you?

[deleted] 2026-01-28 15:06

[deleted]

ionizing_chicanery 2026-01-28 15:07

It's always just more from Ross Gerber who has been saying this stuff for years. Would be great to see another former bull show disillusionment for a change.

TheAnalogKoala 2026-01-28 15:09

Riding in a waymo is like riding in the Space Shuttle. I don’t know how much all that stuff costs, but it can’t be cheap. Waymo is a pretty courteous driver, though.

BringBackUsenet 2026-01-28 15:19

Or "next year."

BringBackUsenet 2026-01-28 15:19

"Last year".

SHUT_DOWN_EVERYTHING 2026-01-28 15:19

His job is to pump the stock, not to innovate. He’s doing a good job at that, as stupid as it sounds.

BringBackUsenet 2026-01-28 15:20

When the large fund managers start waking up an selling off is when we know the end is near.

Contributing_Factor 2026-01-28 15:38

Lol right? Took them this long to figure it out?!?

All_Hail_Hynotoad 2026-01-28 15:52

I actually enjoy Waymo. They’re not big talkers.

Opting_out_again 2026-01-28 15:59

Duh

Fockelot 2026-01-28 16:03

No shit, Sherlock.

SocialJusticeAndroid 2026-01-28 16:05

“Several years ago.”

fredaklein 2026-01-28 16:07

It's simple really, Musk is a fraud.

Rolling_Pugsly 2026-01-28 16:07

I've said it here many times before- Anyone paying attention would have recognized his bulls\*it in 2016-17.

SpectrumWoes 2026-01-28 16:08

The funny part is that Ross used to be ALL the way up Elon’s ass and in the cult.

Rolling_Pugsly 2026-01-28 16:08

I'd love to see a list of all his predictions/promises.

Spageroni 2026-01-28 16:21

yeah imagine caring about the people that come after you. very unamerican I agree

Unusual_Specialist 2026-01-28 16:40

What about all the people who put deposits on Roadster that has yet to deliver? The guy is a quack. 🤔

Warm-Professional494 2026-01-28 16:46

You think taxi and/or Uber/Lyft disinfect after each ride let alone after each shift? Now Let me tell you about public transportation busses and trains… poop. Poop everywhere. Wash you hands folks.

SisterOfBattIe 2026-01-28 16:53

I don't know what held the USA economy despite all the Enron grade frauds, but it cannot possibly last much longer. 2026 could be it.

kveggie1 2026-01-28 16:55

Tesla always falls short.

mrkjmsdln_new 2026-01-28 16:57

The dirtiest thing in your life is your phone. Park the theatrics.

mrkjmsdln_new 2026-01-28 16:58

Speaking of 2016 that is when the revolution in hole digging was upon us. Just buy a flamethrower to help us. They've managed to dig << 10miles of small holes at TBC in 10 years (world-leding if you listen to the jester) -- the absurdity is profound. That's under 15 feet a day. Think how long laying a water line might take with the clownshow in charge. The grift never ends. China recently completed two 14 km tunnels THROUGH A ROCK MOUNTAIN at 3000m elevation. The whole job including six lanes each way in about 4 years. There's a sucker born every minute as PT Barnum told us. The big tragedy is there are superfans who can even muster a yeah but to the obvious lies at every turn -- useful idiots.

Warm-Professional494 2026-01-28 17:01

I’m not the one afraid because robo taxi won’t clean their car after rides. I’m pointing out neither does anything you use for transportation. I lick my phone like Rogan said to build up immunity! Checkmate!

BringBackUsenet 2026-01-28 17:06

Next he will announce a time machine company to take all "his" inventions back to make is predictions valid. I suspect he'll try to call it TimeX.

mrkjmsdln_new 2026-01-28 17:13

Can't tell if you are being sarcastic -- I hope so. Otherwise, enjoy your milk straight from the udder RFK Jr. A confederacy of dunces. Even the imbeciles who scrawled out the revealed truth of the Old Testament 4000 years ago on an animal skin were smart enough to clean it before they shared how it all works in the Iron Age. PT Barnum has entered the conversation.

BringBackUsenet 2026-01-28 17:16

Taxis, Uber, etc. have human drivers who are actually in the vehicle so they can supervise what is going on. An unmonitored unsupervised vehicle is really going to be victim of the tragedy of the commons. A robotaxi is going to have drunks puking, people doing the nasty inside, and may even bleed all over.

Warm-Professional494 2026-01-28 17:19

4000 years ago would have been the Bronze Age

BringBackUsenet 2026-01-28 17:20

Not really. The stock is in Full Self Driving mode now as tulipmania has long taken over.

ClassicT4 2026-01-28 17:20

He got awful quiet about putting people on Mars.

BringBackUsenet 2026-01-28 17:22

A quack is a bad physician. That still requires a level of education and knowledge.

BringBackUsenet 2026-01-28 17:23

In many cases it can't fall because it never got off the ground.

Exciting_Turn_9559 2026-01-28 17:34

It is going to be hilarious watching the true believers lose everything.

MushroomFondue 2026-01-28 17:34

True true.

BigMax 2026-01-28 17:35

Well, I do believe that *in theory* robotaxis could be big business. If they are automated fully, and pervasive, and the costs come down because of all that... they could start to really be ubiquitous and some people might start to use that as a semi-primary form of transportation. There are about 10 big "ifs" in that though, and Tesla has shown it's unable to really move the ball forward on much of anything in the last 15 years or so. So if robotaxis become a big thing, it's almost certainly going to be someone else doing it.

DhOnky730 2026-01-28 17:36

I think the biggest cybercab bulls underestimate the cost per mile of maintaining, monitoring, cleaning, charging, etc. they think it’s a high volume high margin business because there’s no human driver. but there‘s still people who are paid to do jobs when they need charging, cleaning, monitoring, and maintenance. and transportation itself isn’t high margin, or everyone would be driving themselves.

Gigeon1 2026-01-28 17:59

I don't understand why a singular person cares about "robotaxi's" when we literally have Waymo, legally rolling out all across the country, delivering 100s of thosuands of unmanned rides regularly, having over 25 million miles driven so far. We literally already have robotic taxi's, it exists, it's safe, it's scaling - literally who gives a flying f about Tesla on this???

EarthConservation 2026-01-28 18:04

It's either "every year" or "within two years". The 2015 claim of autonomous vehicles was for two years... but by 2016 that changed to "next year"... and now here we are 10 years later and it's still just one more year away /s. The original expected launch date of the Cybertruck announced during the late 2019 unveiling was for late 2021, but it didn't launch a limited release until late 2023. And of course many of their grandiose claims miss their targets, even when they finally do release their products. Cybertruck was far more expensive than he claimed, with worse specs, and sold far worse than even the most bearish people thought it would. For FSD, every car was supposed to have the necessary FSD hardware to be operated autonomously once the software was ready, going back to the introduction of the model 3 in 2017-2018. His Robotaxis claims, the product most claimed to responsible for the excessive valuation of the company, was for a system that could operate in any region of the US without any specific regional testing/training and no geofencing. It would be enabled with a simple OTA update. He never mentioned a thing about remote operators, or having to train the system in a given region, or have to utilize employee safety passengers/drivers. The reality is that the "robotaxi" service has now been operating in Austin for 7 months, was in testing for at least a month or two before the service was launched, so 8+ months of testing / training so far for one small region. It still has employees in the cars. (or recently in the chase cars, no one has been able to hail one of these cars, FYI) Analysis has shown that they've been running an abnormally small number of taxis in Austin in recent months, versus claims of growing the service. It is still geofenced, has restrictions on operating in inclement weather, and it still has remote operators involved. The reality is that if this type of testing/training and geofencing is necessary in every region Tesla plans to open their service in, then their service really has no huge advantage over any other service that does the same sort of regional testing/training and remote monitoring, like Waymo. Therefore, other than the price of the hardware, which over the life of the vehicle isn't a massive advantage for Tesla and for which Waymo is working to reduce hardware costs, Tesla has no distinct advantage over competitors. Then there's the regulatory issues. Musk seemed to be relying on Trump to enable a nationwide system for autonomous vehicle regulatory approvals, so as to avoid needing regulatory approval in every state/municipality... which would of course make all autonomous vehicle systems far cheaper to rollout. That was especially important for Tesla in combination with their claims that they could simply do an OTA update and the system would just work nation wide. However, Austin has proven that it's very unlikely to be the case that it's just a matter of an OTA update. Every region they open to will very likely require significant costs and employee efforts to test and train the system, and while that happens, multiple employees will be getting paid to babysit the system. If they ever do become fully autonomous without a driver or chase vehicle, the system will still need to rely on potentially expensive remote monitoring systems and employees in case the vehicles run into snags. None of this reality matches the grandiose claims that Musk and Cathie Wood claimed. The longer it takes Tesla to succeed at truly autonomous vehicles, the more competition grows or catches up, and the more downward pricing pressure will be placed on autonomous fares... devastating the profitability guidance of such a service. Not only will the service be far more expensive to operate than originally claimed, it'll generate far less revenue per fare.

mnj561 2026-01-28 18:06

Kind of like two weeks Trump.

mnj561 2026-01-28 18:07

Kind of like two weeks Trump.

Free_Range_Lobster 2026-01-28 18:22

Canada just blew the door wide open for BYD. It's just a matter of regime, I mean leadership change and they'll be here too.

EarthConservation 2026-01-28 18:25

Ironically, I think Canada was attempting to protect their auto industry, but on account of Trump's actions and tariffs, they decided to go with this route. Canada's auto industry is closely linked with the US's industry, sharing parts suppliers across the border, with parts consistently flowing back and forth between nations. Of course... given the Musk connection to China... and Musk's close ties to this administration... it's certainly possible this was the intended affect if there really is policy being pushed in favor of China. I would not be surprised if by the end of Trump's term, Chinese vehicles and EV batteries are flowing freely into the US.

Free_Range_Lobster 2026-01-28 18:26

BYD coming to the US would effectively destroy Tesla.

RagingDemonsNoDQ 2026-01-28 18:33

NAH! Really?!

mrkjmsdln_new 2026-01-28 18:43

>**before they shared how it all works in the Iron Age** Funny I guess. I was not clear. We invented alphabets 4000 years ago after splashing around in the mud for 200,000 years give or take. Generations tweaked the animal skins for a long time (well into the Iron Age) -- even the revealed truth needed lots of cleanup. The important thing is it was revealed truth to keep folks in line I guess. Most progress is recent since the Scientific Revolution about 300-400 years ago anyhow Comets stopped being Gods riding chariots even though some animal skins or tablets might purport differently. Progress is good. We only started making vaccines around the American Revolution. That's why any good portraits of the Founders exhibit a whole lot of pox marks. We stil have imbeciles just asking questions. Pasteurization was not too bad either even for Joe Rogan I suppose -- guessing he eats cheese pizza and sets aside his questions:) **Thanks for the correction!**

Ya-Not-Happening 2026-01-28 19:07

At this point it is beyond embarrassing that anyone thinks something big is coming out of Tezzla.

blabla_fn_bla 2026-01-28 19:10

Sounds like Drumpf

dynamadan 2026-01-28 19:11

It kind of blows my mind that robotaxis is supposed to be the thing that saved the company. Low margin business depending on massive volume. But now half the country literally HATES its CEO and will actively sabotage them at any chance they get. Think a shrimp in a vent in the summer. Or fish paste on the doors. Just a dab will do you. Will take hours or days to really start smelling. Taxi drivers do a lot more than drive. They are customer service transportation agents. If AI starts having a huge effect on the job market then drivers will be one of the last jobs people can do. So it’s a race to the bottom with a public relations nightmare they can’t possibly win. That’s not even mentioning the lawsuits when inevitable deaths occur and they can no longer hide behind FSD being supervised. This company and its stock is a ticking time bomb.

pacific_beach 2026-01-28 19:11

This year (2026) is a good year for a Mars launch given the alignment of the planets so don't be surprised if he launches another car or something into space to generate hype for a SpaceX IPO

Redacted_Bull 2026-01-28 19:17

Careful using your brain in here. A lot of dipshits about.

BringBackUsenet 2026-01-28 19:27

It's not going to be very hilarious when people's pension funds get hit because of some greedy unprincipled fund managers who put their money into this crap.

Youngnathan2011 2026-01-28 19:46

Wild people still believe what he says

Big_footed_hobbit 2026-01-28 20:46

Every taxi gets followed by 1-2 safety vehicles. That will improve traffic 🤣🤣🤣

EarthConservation 2026-01-28 20:59

BYD and other Chinese companies coming to the US could destroy the entire US auto industry, which includes all companies that manufacture in the US, not just the big 3.

Lichensuperfood 2026-01-28 22:11

I think outside the USA they often would not be able to compete with trams and trains. In the USA they will face the love of owning your own truck :)

Mon1verse 2026-01-28 22:21

Has you try on TSLA FSD? What’s the part that you don’t understand it’s a freaking awesome?? What’s coming short? Short on what?? Not in technology for sure maybe on regulation but it takes time! At least the technology already there!

toastmannn 2026-01-29 00:03

In America they build tunnels specifically sized for People's trucks to travel a few miles because fuck public transportation ig

DeliciousAges 2026-01-29 00:43

That's not true. Sometimes it's also "next year" ;) Probably depends on Musk's Ketamine consumption levels.

bumskins 2026-01-29 03:12

TBC Ross is a fucking moron and never owned many shares.

pavlik_enemy 2026-01-29 05:00

There certainly are people "doin' it" in Waymos despite it having a camera

pavlik_enemy 2026-01-29 05:05

I wouldn't call it wide open. The quota is 50K vehicles and there are almost 2M vehicles sold in Canada each year The problem is that there fixed costs to establish dealership and service network that need to be paid regardless of the number of cars you sell

mrbuttsavage 2026-01-29 05:13

Waymo is both proof that robotaxis work and that robotaxis aren't worth a fraction of Teslas market cap.

paintstudiodisaster 2026-01-29 05:52

He has no company he can buy and say he invented it. He now has to have his own ideas, and he doesn't have any good ones. This is Zuckerberg in the metaverse all over again.

BringBackUsenet 2026-01-29 12:58

I could see them being used for drug deals and all sort of other underground activies where it would be advantageous to keep moving.

Livid_Roof5193 2026-01-29 13:15

What does the size of the tunnel have to do with people not using public transportation? For the record I agree that Americans are ridiculously averse to public transportation at times, but public transportation vehicles are larger than our pick up trucks by quite a lot. A tunnel that would be sized for a train, trolley, or bus would quite literally need to be even larger than one sized for a pick up truck. Also our typical trucks used for shipping goods are much larger than a pick up truck, and those delivery trucks are quite literally what we size tunnels for. I do agree Americans need to evolve on the topic of public transportation, but literally everything else in your comment is just plain wrong.

toastmannn 2026-01-29 13:46

I'm specifically referring to the boring company tunnels that are only just barely big enough for a single Tesla model X (it's a suv, I know) to travel one way.

Livid_Roof5193 2026-01-29 14:36

From what I’ve read the Boring Company tunnels are supposed to specifically be sized for small/light EV’s, not trucks though (caveat - I have never worked on one personally so can’t speak to the specific specs in detail past what I have read online). I do see what you mean in terms of it being silly for us to build tunnels just for cars when they would be more efficient if built for public transportation vehicles instead. I’m guessing those projects are probably being used more to funnel taxpayer dollars to an oligarch than to actually reflect our transportation patterns/needs. That kind of fraud seems to be as American as apple pie at this point.

Common-Violinist-305 2026-01-29 15:36

end of the quarter, end of the week, end of the day. end of Tesla

hotwifefun 2026-01-29 21:57

and they grossly overestimate the market cap. If you replaced every single rideshare and taxi driver tomorrow with cybercabs you’d still be perpetually paying off the debt you incurred to simply get here.

Charming-Tea644 2026-01-29 22:39

A well a you know a its going to happen a like you know in a month or maybe this yr. A

wongl888 2026-01-30 07:29

The beauty of this is that there is an infinite number of “by end of the year”.

GrowthProfitGrofit 2026-01-31 03:08

Maybe one day he'll make it to the moon, then he'll finally have a rocket that can compete with 1960s NASA

HeadPaleontologist40 2026-01-31 10:20

Elon is an unserious person whom everyone takes seriously for some reason.

SocialJusticeAndroid 2026-02-01 15:33

He will give new meaning to “it takes a licking…”

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