Tesla says it will roll out Uber-style ride services program
Tesla says it will roll out Uber-style ride services program
Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA.O) is planning to roll out a ride services
program and will announce details next year, the luxury electric
vehicle maker said on its website, a service first outlined by Chief
Executive Elon Musk in his master plan in July. News
of the Tesla Network was in a disclaimer about the self-driving
functionality on new Model S vehicles. Musk said on Wednesday Tesla is
building new vehicles with the necessary hardware to eventually enable
full autonomy, although the software is not yet ready. "Please
note that using a self-driving Tesla for car sharing and ride hailing
for friends and family is fine, but doing so for revenue purposes will
only be permissible on the Tesla Network, details of which will be
released next year," read the disclaimer. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for more detail. Car
makers have rushed to invest in so-called mobility services, hoping to
capture the potential trillions of dollars in revenue from selling both
vehicles and such on-demand services, while carving out a stake in the
industry dominated by Uber UBER.UL. Barclays
analyst Brian Johnson wrote in a note to investors on Thursday that
although a Tesla Network could "excite the market" over its potential
earnings stream, it was a costly proposition. "While
we think ride-sharing/hailing is the future of mass-market mobility, we
have some financial concerns with the idea of an OEM-owned fleet,"
Johnson wrote. Venture
capitalists and corporate investors had poured nearly $28 billion into
the ride services sector in the past decade as of June, according to a
Reuters analysis. General
Motors has made the biggest bet, investing $500 million in Lyft in
January. GM's upcoming electric Chevrolet Bolt was designed expressly
with car sharing in mind, executives have told Reuters. Money-losing
Tesla lacks the deep pockets of GM, and ride services companies like
Uber and Lyft burn billions of dollars in price wars to secure regional
dominance, as occurred with Uber in China before it ceded to local rival
Didi Chuxing. In his "Master Plan, Part Deux" in
July, Musk outlined a system in which a Tesla owner could add a car to a
shared Tesla fleet using a phone app, allowing it to "generate income
for you" and lower the cost of ownership. Musk said that in cities where car ownership is lower, Tesla would operate its own fleet.
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