“T” Is For…”Tanking”?

Back in the day:

In December 2024, Musk announced that Tesla would start rolling out its long-awaited robotaxis in June 2025, exciting fans of the company. However, experts have claimed that these electric vehicles (EVs) won’t be fully self-driving, as they will be assisted by a remote human operator.

Like his ground breaking robots, which were just people in costumes? (Tee-hee! Elmo is just a little boy at heart.)?

Now Musk is facing a new obstacle, this time from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Tesla’s attempts to copyright the name Robotaxi have run up against roadblocks, as the government agency argues that the name is too generic to trademark.

Is “RoboCop”available? Can it be? How about just “taXi”? Can Trump help with this? I know! “Brand X”!

But that’s not the only obstacle the company is facing in the self-driving car market. Tesla rival Waymo has successfully put self-driving vehicles on the road and partnered with Uber, establishing itself as an early leader in the space.

As TheStreet’s Tony Owusu reports, “Waymo's current fleet features over 1,500 vehicles spread across its four current host cities, but by next year, it expects to more than double its fleet with more than 2,000 new additions.”

Tesla may have a difficult time trademarking the names Robotaxi and Cybercab, but it will likely have an even harder time catching up to Waymo.

Can they just put it on the road with “Name to Follow,”or “Working Title”?

Meanwhile, Tesla can’t even market its Cybertruck.

Tesla sold a brand-new 2024 Cybertruck AWD Foundation Series for $100,000. Now, with only 6,000 miles on the odometer, Tesla is offering $65,400 for it – 34.6% depreciation in just a year.

Pickup trucks generally lose about 20% of their value after a year and 34% after about 3-4 years.

Other used car dealers are depreciating the “truck” by 45%.

Elmo remains a genius:

The company created no scarcity with the Foundation Series. They built as many as people wanted. In fact, they built too many and ended having to “buff out” the Foundation Series badges on some units to sell them as regular Cybertrucks and as of last month, Tesla still had some Cybertruck Foundations Series in inventory – meaning they have been sitting around for up to 6 months.

Now, Tesla is stuck with thousands of Cybertrucks, early owners are already getting rid of their vehicles at an impressive rate, and the automaker had to slow production to a crawl.