In September of 1962, The Jetsons, an animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera, introduced technologies that the world thought were far-fetched and impossible at the time: self-driving and flying cars.
While flying cars are yet to be a thing, self-driving cars are now a thing – even though they are not fully autonomous. Over the years, Elon Musk has made several predictions, estimating the arrival of Tesla’s first set of fully autonomous self-driving (FSD) cars. The latest projection being in 2020. Unfortunately, we have yet to see these cars, but Tesla did manage to release its FSD beta version in 2020.
This blog is not about the progress of self-driving cars but about a 30 trillion dollar market trend that FSD cars will bring about in the near future. Some of the world’s largest tech companies, such as Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple, have already started investing in it, as well as some of the world’s most savvy investors. Investors such as billionaire Richard Branson and Warren Buffet have already invested 15 billion dollars: with Buffet planning on investing another 15 billion. Nasdaq.com is calling this market trend “One of the biggest opportunities in the next decade.”
You must be asking yourself, what is this new market trend FSD cars will give birth to? The answer to this question, my dear friend, is shared autonomous vehicles (SAV). Most of our cars either sit idling in our garage depreciating: Imagine earning a steady income while your car is doing the work for you. Now imagine arriving at work in your FSD car, getting out of it, and pressing a button, on an app, on your phone that instructs your car to join a fleet of FSD cars. While you are at work, your car is out driving itself, giving others rides, earning money, and returns to your office at the end of the day. Your car is now an income-producing asset. Now imagine having a fleet of these cars. I know all of this sounds like science fiction, but the lines between science fiction and reality are already blurred. FSD is already on its way.
Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, has already made his first step into achieving this through his newest project: RoboTaxi. Musk has estimated that persons with a Tesla autonomous driving enabled car will soon earn an additional USD 30,000 per year through SAV. He stated that persons with an FSD car will be allowed to effectively connect their car with Tesla’s Driving Network Data Centre. Through this network data centre FSD drivers and passengers will be able to communicate with each other. If you live in an area with limited Tesla cars, Elon got you covered because he will be sending his fleet of SAV to your neighborhood.
If or when this project is off the ground, Tesla’s RoboTaxi will then transcend to become the holy grail of transportation. Bye, bye Uber and Lyft, and hello to RoboTaxi.
