Tesla Robotaxi Rumors Fuel Hollywood Anger At Elon Musk

At the end of August, Bloomberg have reported that electric carmaker Tesla plans to reveal its next autonomous robotaxi, which will be called the Cybercab, on October 10 at the Warner Brothers studio in Burbank. This vehicle will supposedly be purpose-built to function exclusively as a self-driving taxi. As such, it will not have accelerator or brake pedals or a steering wheel and will be summoned via a special Tesla app. About a week ago, sources shared an image of a small, canary-yellow vehicle trotting around the Warners lot, followed by Tesla production vehicles, leading some to suggest it was a camouflaged robotaxi.

The hype, blurring, and broken promises surrounding the unveiling and production of Tesla's upcoming products — a “semi” tractor-trailer, a new sports roadster, an entry-level vehicle, this robotaxi — are so common they're standard operating procedure. Since Tesla completely eliminated its public relations department four years ago, The Hollywood Reporter I cannot confirm that this event (already postponed once this year) will take place.

But if it goes through, the global launch of a new Tesla at Warners is sure to raise eyebrows in Hollywood and draw attention to the cozy relationship between the automaker’s increasingly controversial CEO, Elon Musk, and Warner’s controversial CEO, David Zaslav. (Warner Bros. declined to comment on the alleged robotaxi reveal.) As Musk has continued his trajectory through the MAGA universe, pledging allegiance to right-wing conspiracies, amplifying racist and anti-Semitic messages, denigrating trans people, including his daughter, and endorsing Donald Trump, his Hollywood stock and his brand’s stock have plummeted.

“Elon is very outspoken, and his political views are not that popular in the entertainment industry,” says Debbie Levin, CEO of the Environmental Media Association (EMA), which promotes messages, actions and products to create positive environmental change in Hollywood.

The brand's current diminished status in Hollywood is especially notable when compared to a decade ago, when Tesla products began to penetrate the industry. “Tesla has become the It-Car in terms of electrification,” Levin says, “If you could spend $100,000 on a car, it was a way to show that you cared about the environment.”

As the brand has expanded, Southern California, long at the forefront of vehicle trends, has become one of its biggest markets. “When you’re in Hollywood, driving around the studios, that’s pretty much all you see,” says Ed Kim, president and chief analyst at Auto Pacific, a SoCal-based mobility research firm. “There are Teslas everywhere.”

Now, there are shifts in local consumer interest and buying behavior. “We’ve certainly seen Tesla sales decline significantly this year,” Kim says, citing a nearly 25 percent drop in sales in the Golden State this quarter alone. That’s notable not just because the brand is losing market share to established luxury automakers like Audi, BMW, and Mercedes, and forcing startups like Polestar, Lucid, and Rivian to diversify their EV offerings. But because, in a growing EV market, Tesla is shrinking. “Despite all the headlines, EV sales are still growing. They’re just not growing at the same rate as they used to. But Tesla is actually LOSE sales,” Kim says. “In fact, Tesla is one of the few EV makers that has lost volume, not just market share.”

This decline may be related to Musk’s recent rightward shift and associated online antics. “Tesla rejection has increased recently and continues among Democrats. They don’t want anything to do with Tesla,” says Alexander Edwards, president of Strategic Vision, a Southern California-based consulting firm that conducts hundreds of thousands of in-depth psychographic surveys of new-car buyers each year. “And there are no secret Republicans buying them. They just don’t exist.”

Edwards cites data from a recent proprietary survey showing that the number of potential new-car buyers who would consider a Tesla for their next purchase has dropped by nearly half since 2022, and the number who definitely Not consider Tesla up nearly two-thirds, with the steepest declines coming this summer as Musk warmed to Trump. “And those numbers are still moving in that negative direction,” he adds.

Edwards says such attitude shifts may take time to translate into consumer behavior in the auto category because, unlike nondurables like beer or fast fashion, the purchase cycle rarely happens. “Some people who have Teslas now are so upset that they’re tearing up their leases and walking away. But most people don’t have the financial capacity,” he says. “So we’re not really going to see that scale for the next three years. But the next time you buy, you better believe there will be that exodus if things don’t change soon.”

Of course, Tesla has never been a traditional or predictable company, and consumer response may not follow the usual trends, even in the progressive entertainment industry. “There’s a giant Tesla Café, the Tesla Diner, that they’re building in Los Angeles right now,” Kim says. “And there’s all this buzz and excitement around that, despite the fact that it’s right in the middle of Hollywood.”

Still, it seems likely that there will be a lasting impact in response to Musk’s provocations, especially in Hollywood. And given the industry’s influence on consumer behavior, that effect will likely become more pervasive, domestically or even globally, Edwards says. “When you have that level of arrogance, you do and say the stupidest things. And I would say that Trump and Elon are very similar. They do and say some of the stupidest things,” he says. “If Elon continues down this path, he’s going to be without a company in the United States.”

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