As Robotaxis Spread, Carmakers Must Choose Between Owning the Customer and Selling the Car
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), Alphabet‘s (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) Waymo, and Amazon‘s (NASDAQ: AMZN) Zoox already operate robotaxis in the U.S., and Chinese operators continue to expand their fleets as the global rollout spreads. Their growth intensifies a critical debate about the future of transportation, which every investor needs to have an opinion on before buying auto-related stocks.
The future of mobility is autonomy, but it’s how that autonomy integrates within transportation that really counts in this debate. On one side are the companies that own the rider via their robotaxis, including Tesla, Amazon, Alphabet, and Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER), which is building out an autonomous vehicle network in partnership with automakers.
On the other hand, traditional automakers like Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) and General Motors (NYSE: GM) abandoned robotaxi development after investing billions. Yet, both continue to work on autonomous driving. They are automakers focused on selling cars, and ultimately, cars with autonomous capability.
Source: www.fool.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.