As in Uber and Lyft, Tesla, the car manufacturer, launches a VTC service (chauffeur-driven private cars). Yet Tesla’s innovative products will only be driven by robots with no human driver on board.
By 2020, one million Robo-Taxis as level 5 self-driving vehicles shall be put on the roads of some American States. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla has indeed presented the project during a day dedicated to investors. The cars will be equipped with highly developed on-board computers capable of processing a large amount of visual information. The operation will include three vehicle models :
- Model 3
- Model S
- Model X
The self-driving cars [4] will either be owned by individuals or companies and will purposely be registered on a booking platform.
The customers shall be able to book their taxi using an app. The system will make a considerable economic benefit as owners could earn up to 30.000 USD per year and customers could benefit from cheaper services. For the record, the owners of the vehicle do not have to use it exclusively as a taxi. They may, according to their needs, drive it for personal usage.
When the fleet of self-driving taxis will be full, Tesla will make its own fleet of vehicles available to customers. The manufacturer seeks to generate 25-30% of the turnover throughout this business.