Investor Ross Gerber on Monday advised Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) owners to refrain from participating in the EV giant’s Airbnb Inc.-like (NASDAQ:ABNB) Robotaxi service rollout amid the Cybercab launch.
Tesla Bears No Risk
In a series of posts on the social media platform X on Monday, the Gerber Kawasaki co-founder shared his view on CEO Elon Musk‘s vision about the Cybercab being a crossover between Airbnb and Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE:UBER). “So tesla sells the cybercab to other “fleet managers” and takes a cut of the revenue for managing the system plus the sale price,” the investor said in his post.
He added that such a model “vastly” lowers the EV giant’s risk on factors like pricing and operations, which would be borne by the fleet managers opting in for the service instead.
In a separate post, the investor expanded on some of the risks that this business model could entail for Tesla, which could lose out on a “lot of reoccurring revenue by not owning the cybercabs,” but this inversely meant that the company did not “have to lay out so much capital to scale.”
Gerber also said that Tesla could take a 20%-30% cut from the revenue and “if no one uses the cabs it’s on you, not tesla… just like Airbnb,” he said.
Ross Gerber Issues Warning for Tesla Owners
The investor also issued a warning to Tesla owners in a post, pointing to the Latin phrase, “Caveat Emptor,” which translates to “let the buyer beware.”
It is also used in legal terminology to illustrate that the onus of checking the quality of a particular product/service before making the purchase rests on the buyer.
“I can’t tell you how many tesla owners have lost equity in their vehicles,” he said. “I recommend letting tesla take the risk with this rollout… not you,” the investor added.
According to Benzinga Edge Rankings, Tesla scores moderately on the Growth and Quality metrics, but offers poor Value and Momentum. TSLA also fails to provide a favorable price trend in the Short, Medium and Long term.
Price Action: TSLA shares were up 0.54% to $355.99 during overnight trading.
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