Would You Robotaxi Your Rivian?

[Rivian_Hugh_III]

ARK Investment Management recently shared this slide, saying that society’s move to "autonomous ride-hail" will increase GDP more than the steam engine and IT.

In five years’ time, would you allow your Rivian to autonomously drive itself around town to taxi people and enable them to haul?

The idea is that it will help them, help your community, and help you by making money in the form of fares. I imagine Rivian Central will also take a cut.

Lots of people wish they had trucks but don’t own them. I would think R1T owners would have lots of opportunities for fares.

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[Friscorays]

Bummer about March 1, 2022.

 

[astonius]

I think Elon and Cathie Wood both underestimate how much current generations value ownership and privacy. Maybe future generations will be cool with strangers popping in and out of their vehicle day-to-day, but I don’t know many people who are that trusting today.

What’s more likely is businesses dedicated to robotaxi services, which will probably consume Tesla’s factory capacity. I don’t think many individuals will be on board for a while, myself included.

 

[Zoidz]

When it's 10 years old and I have purchase a new vehicle, yes. But until then, NOPE.

 

[Dark-Fx]

No. I absolutely don't want faceless people getting into my vehicle and making it a mess, and wearing it out faster
. I also don't want to run a robotaxi business, so no extra vehicle just to perform that function.

Lots of people wish they had trucks but don’t own them. I would think R1T owners would have lots of opportunities for fares.

Uhaul rents pickup trucks. Home Depot rents pickup trucks. If people need to use one, they already have options.

 

[JeremyMKE]

I am actually cool with this concept. That said this will be the most expensive vehicle I have purchased and I wouldn’t want to put that at such risk. At half the price? Perhaps.

 

[electruck]

Never mind the fact that we are way more than 5 years away from truly autonomous cars (I predict closer to 20 in spite of what Elon keeps promising).

Are people actually going to rent out their vehicle with all their crap in it? Or do we really expect people are going to remove car seats, kids toys, vacuum out the Cheerios and dog hair, remove any tools, etc every time they want to rent the vehicle out?

If I actually own the vehicle in this scenario, I'm not going to want to deal with cleaning up other people's messes, repairing their damages, returning anything they leave behind in the car, etc.

I just don't see myself ever renting out a vehicle that I own. Just like I don't airbnb my house when I take a vacation.

 

[OverZealous]

In my opinion, the entire robotaxi concept is yet another thing that only someone who doesn't actually worry about day-to-day cost of living would think makes sense.

For most of the people I know, having a vehicle is both a luxury and a necessity. There's no way you can just "send it out" to make money, because you need your vehicle to work, get groceries, get your kids, etc. If it gets wrecked, trashed, or whatever, you aren't just inconvenienced a little while the car is repaired, you might be unable to get to work, etc.

If you have excessive cash lying around, sure, you can have a few extra vehicles on hand that you lend out to make extra money. I think the uber-rich see their fleet of unused vehicles sitting around and just think, "how can that make me money?" Then they assume everyone else would want to do the same.

I'm sure plenty of people would be interested, but that's going to be limited people who already have multiple vehicles, or who don't actually use their vehicle much at all.

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

Not just no but HELL NO.

All this ride/home sharing is for the birds. I know how I treat a rental car compared with my own car, and I'm probably on the gentle end of the spectrum.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

Noooooooooooooooo way!

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

I would say "F@#$ no" but I don't think that adequately conveys how much I would NOT be doing that.

 

[electruck]

What about issues of liability? If someone pays to have your car take them somewhere and is involved in an accident, could you be liable? I expect regulators will eventually tackle the issue of owner vs manufacturer in the case of an autonomous driving issue but what about something as basic as a tire blowout? Or failure to apply an OTA update? If you're responsible for the maintenance, you're probably going to be liable.

 

[huskybrewing]

Living in Las Vegas, this is a hard no because I try to maintain a zero vomit in the vehicle policy.

 

[kylealden]

I know some pretty highly placed folks in the AI/autonomous vehicle space, but not a single one who still believes this is less than a decade away. There's zero chance it's coming to current or upcoming generation vehicles.

The headline might as well talk about the economic impact of free perpetual clean energy, for all the relevance it has to the world today. There are players in this space that investors can roll the dice on, but don't get excited about seeing returns for a while. And you certainly won't be robo-renting your R1T.

 

[E.S.]

In five years’ time, would you allow your Rivian to autonomously drive itself around town to taxi people and enable them to haul?

No + no, times Heck no, divided by Nope, to the power of HELL no.

It's going to take a long time to get this vehicle. I plan to enjoy it to my fullest. To JIGOKU someone else gonna enjoy my truck in a Johnny Cab manner.

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