How Self-driving on the “Surface Streets” will Turn Tesla Customers into “Airbnb” for Cars!
I don’t own a Tesla vehicle or battery. Nor do I own any Tesla stock yet. My interest in Tesla is primarily of admiration for their self-driving A.I. and hardware. Tesla will win big with the self-driving tech as long as the U.S. regulators approve self-driving on the surface streets of America. It will be a game-changer for Tesla and its customers.
Now imagine, your Tesla drops you off at work at 7 AM and then goes to work for a few hours and come back to pick you up on time! With fast-charging stations with self-connect plugs that would allow driverless cars to plug themselves in, this is a profitable opportunity for all parties — the tesla customer (you), Tesla, and the charge operating station (a franchise of Tesla).
Again, imagine you came home from work in your latest Tesla model Y, S, or 3. You push a button in your Tesla app to let Tesla know that your car is no longer needed for the night. The Tesla self-driving car rental mode kicks in.
Your car drives itself to an airport parking lot and starts to provide ride services to late-arriving passengers in and around town. Before it hits the reserve miles you need for your daily commute, it returns home and hopefully plugs into a self-connect charger.
Or, how about you take a ride to the airport and let Tesla know that you are on vacation for two weeks. Usually, your car will be either parked in an airport garage, and you will be incurring some hefty fees. Or you would leave your car home and take an Uber or taxi to the airport. But with Tesla car rental built into your Tesla vehicle, you can get out of the car, and it goes to work for you! Instead of costing you money or collecting dust, it joins a fleet of Tesla vehicles to provide rides to customers. Both you and Tesla make a lot of money.
Now imagine this happening on a scale of millions of vehicles! Yes, that’s what Tesla’s future needs to look like soon. Now you may be wondering what will happen to Uber or Lyft or the likes of them, right? They have a big problem. To scale, they need to buy or build the vehicles themselves — huge capital cost!
Tesla will add a feature to its Tesla app for their customers and have the customer take a cut of the income while they manage a worldwide fleet!
Who do you think will have more cost efficiencies? Tesla or poorly managed companies like Uber? My bet is on Tesla.
Tesla owners will be happy to make the extra money with their cars. Car ownership will be the equivalant of a side hussle for many people.
Now you must be asking — won’t we have too many self-driving cars on the street and thus reducing the profitability of such a business model? Yes, as the number of self-driving cars increases, the profit opportunity will decrease according to supply and demand.
Having too many self-driving cars on the road would mean fewer car accidents and most of fewer traffic jams! A very welcome side effect for most cities in the world.
