Tesla robotaxi and robovanYour comment piqued my curiosity on whether the claim that 90% of taxi trips involved 1 or 2 passengers was accurate or not; so I tried to look up actual data. Best data I found is dated, but unless human behavior has changed significantly, I'd guess the 90% number is a good estimate. I also learned that roughly half of miles a taxi travels is empty of passengers; that number varying considerably by city.
To your point, the question I'd ask is if it is better to use smaller vehicles over 90% of time, knowing occasionally you may need two vehicles to accomplish the task, or is it better to have larger vehicles all the time knowing they will go underutilized over 90% of time.
I expect the answer depends on how much larger and heavier a 4-passenger taxi would need to be compared to a 2-passenger taxi, and also how much more expensive. For an autonomous taxi where there is no driver labor, vehicle cost becomes an even greater percentage of total.
For what it's worth, the Tesla Robotaxi or Cybercab still looks more like a possible future Model 2 than an actual taxi to me. For local trips a 2-seater could work as a second or third vehicle for many families, and that's assuming they can't fit a small back seat the size of a Mustang's in a production car. The Cybercab is dimensionally not that small so there should be room for a small back seat.Sat, 19 Oct 2024 13:25:05 +0000
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