Steve Westly, The Westly Group founder, joins 'Money Movers' to discuss Tesla as it prepares to launch its Robotaxi in Austin.

Austin

Tesla is set to introduce its robotaxi service in Austin as the company faces declining sales and growing competition from other electric vehicle manufacturers such as BYD and GM. Industry expert Steve Westly notes that Tesla is positioning itself as a technology company rather than just a car manufacturer, putting pressure on the firm to demonstrate significant innovation.

Concerns remain regarding the safety of Tesla's autonomous vehicles, as the company reportedly lags behind competitors like Waymo in terms of miles driven between critical interventions. While other companies have secured regulatory approval and expanded operations to multiple cities, Tesla has yet to receive such approval and is considered to be behind schedule in Austin. The upcoming launch is seen as a pivotal moment for the company.

Tesla robotaxi to launch in Austin

Great to have you back. I'm wondering, Steve, are we going to are we going to walk into the office on Monday morning, just sort of looking at some quiet, you know, efficient video of these cars? And what happens from there? Well, it could be a nothing burger. But look, this is a huge event for Tesla. Their sales are down 11% year over year in Q1. It could be worse than that in Q2. 2025 looks like the first year that Tesla's year over year sales are going to decrease. And the problem is BYD's sales are exploding. 38% growth. GM's EV sales a whopping 98%. Competition's coming. Now, Tesla said don't buy our stock if you're interested in a car company. We are a technology company. So that puts real pressure on Tesla to show they've got something special. I think there's going to be a lot of pressure on them on Sunday. We'll see. Do you have any concerns about safety? We spoke with with the guy from the Dawn Project, you know, who does who's been running tests and has been flagging concerns about Tesla's self-driving instincts and security and whether it's indeed safer than having a person in the car. Are those concerns valid in your view? I think they are. Look, there's a statistic that everybody's going to know in the near future, and that is how many miles can a technology, a car company go, an autonomous vehicle company without having a critical intervention. Right now, Waymo goes 10,000 miles between critical interventions. They claim this is 70% safer than a human driver. Tesla is at about 400 to 500. So they are way behind. As you pointed out, Tesla's already operating in four cities. They've got another five in the pipeline, including New York City, which really shows they can go anywhere. They're providing over 250,000 rides a week, a million a month. Tesla doesn't have regulatory approval anywhere yet. They're two years behind in Austin. So they really need to put on a stunning show on Tuesday. And by all accounts, I'm not sure they're ready for that. But all eyes are going to be on Austin.

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