Tesla CEO Elon Musk has previously gone on record with a 500,000 unit sales goal for his electric vehicle company by 2020. Some think that goal is well out of reach, but Uber CEO Travis Kalanick may have just solidified that achievement well ahead of schedule for Tesla.
Steve Jurvetson, a venture capitalist whose clients include Musk-owned Tesla and SpaceX, recently shared a conversation he had with Kalanick with Forbes. According to Jurvetson, Kalanick told him that Uber would buy all 500,000 vehicles Tesla planned to produce in 2020 if they were fully autonomous.
Obviously Jurvetson’s statement has to be taken with a grain of salt, but it does at least show that ride sharing companies like Uber have a legitimate interest in removing the driver from their business model. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise as such a move would allow for greater company profits.
Although ride sharing companies may be eager to get their hands on driverless cars, that future might not become a reality by 2020. Laws covering autonomous vehicles have yet to be put in place and it remains to be seen if the population at large will be willing to put their lives in the hands of a virtual driver.
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