Tesla to compete against Uber, Lyft, says Elon Musk
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he plans to launch a self-driving ride-sharing service that will compete with industry leaders Uber and Lyft.
“We absolutely see the future as kind of a shared electric autonomy,” Musk said during the company’s earnings call Wednesday. “The advantage that Tesla will have is that we’ll have millions of cars in the field with full autonomy capability and no one else will have that. So I think that will end up putting us in the strongest competitive position long-term.”
Musk said that his vision also infuses Airbnb’s model of being able to share your car for the company’s ride-hailing service, in addition to using the Tesla fleet. The proposal appeared dependent on the widespread introduction of Tesla’s fully autonomous vehicles.
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on “Mornings with Maria” Thursday that he saw a ride-sharing service similar to that described by Musk as the future of transportation.
“You’re going to have autonomous cars, autonomous vans, that take you from your home in San Francisco and drop you off to wherever you want to go … in Los Angeles … for, I don’t know, 25 bucks, 50 bucks,” Ellison said.
On Wednesday, Tesla reported a profit for the first time – fulfilling a promise Musk made to investors to do so before the end of the year, boosting investors’ confidence in shares.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TSLA | TESLA INC. | 339.64 | -2.39 | -0.70% |
Tesla said it produced a weekly average of 4,300 of its flagship Model 3 sedans in the third quarter. Model 3 production has been a challenge for the automaker, which has made a concerted effort to ramp up capacity.
This story has been updated.