NYC Just Shut Down a Tesla Taxi Fleet in Favor of Gas Guzzlers

[CentralMass]

https://futurism.com/the-byte/nyc-shut-down-tesla-taxis
"NYC Just Shut Down a Tesla Taxi Fleet in Favor of Gas Guzzlers
Dan Robitzski in Advanced TransportOn June 23, 2021
Tesla and the electric scooter company Revel planned to launch a fleet of taxis in New York City, but regulators shot the plan down.

Grounded Fleet
New York City regulators stepped in to quash a planned fleet of Tesla taxis in the city, and the logic behind the decision is baffling.

Tesla had partnered with the electric scooter startup Revel to launch a fleet of 50 Tesla Model Y taxis in the Big Apple, according to the New York Post. But the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) blocked the companies from buying the necessary licenses for the vehicles on Tuesday — ruling that Tesla and Revel would need to buy the licenses for gas-burning vehicles instead.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk summed it up pretty well on Twitter, where he posted “??”

Rushed Vote
According to the NY Post’s reporting, the commission voted five to one that in order for the fleet of Revel-branded Teslas to hit the streets, the companies would need to purchase and license 50 internal combustion engine vehicles and then transfer those licenses to the electric Model Ys.

“It’s not just Elon Musk who is baffled by the TLC’s actions yesterday,” Revel CEO Frank Reig told the NY Post after the announcement. “Rushing to vote on a rule change that keeps EVs off the street and threatens jobs — with no analysis, on an election day, two months ahead of a scheduled review — raises a lot of questions.”

Congestion Control
TLC Commissioner Aloysee Heredia Jarmoszuk said that it’s nothing personal against Revel or Tesla, or even against electric cars in general. Rather, the decision was based on preventing even more traffic in the city, something that companies like Uber and Lyft tend to make worse. However, it’s not clear why the two types of cars would still be treated any differently.

“It is not sustainable to allow an unlimited number of new vehicles to the road in a city that is all too familiar with the choke of traffic congestion,” Heredia Jarmoszuk said before voting at the Tuesday meeting, according to the NY Post. “What we will not allow is the opportunity for another corporation — venture capitalists or otherwise — to flood our streets with additional cars.”

[Wounded Bear]

1. Anybody else smell some kickbacks here?

[brush]

3. Oh, yeah.

[TheBlackAdder]

2. 50 cars in NYC is the amount of cars on just a single city block. A drop in the ocean.

[Budi]

4. Perhaps it's more about keeping yet another Billionare's reach out of NYC

ELON MUSK
His $156.9 billion net worth still places him No. 2 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, but he's now almost $20 billion behind Jeff Bezos, who he topped just last week as world's richest person.
Mar 5, 2021

[hunter]

5. The TLC is correct.

Transferring the licenses from gas powered taxis will get those gas powered taxis off the streets.

Otherwise you just get more taxis.

[Disaffected]

6. That's the only way

the story seems to make any sense. It appears the article and headline misinterpreted the ruling.

[CentralMass]

10. That does not seem to be the case beingng made by the TLC commission.

Do have some knowledge of the process to know that by forcing the company to purchase permits for gasoline burning vehicles it will eliminate another 50 gas burning permits from being issued ?

[hunter]

12. The number of taxi permits is limited.

But the industry still hasn't recovered from the covid pandemic or Uber so it's difficult to say if any gasoline taxis would actually be eliminated.

I doubt the TLC is going to issue fifty new taxi medallions for gasoline powered cars just to spite Elon Musk.

[tinrobot]

7. This is not anti-EV. The EV taxis simply have to abide by the same rules.

If you want a new taxi in NYC, you need a medallion. That means buying an old taxi with a medallion and retiring it.

The fuel powering that taxi is a non-issue here. This is not anti-EV.

[Klaralven]

8. Depending on the medallion, the NYC T&L commission has a list of approved models

Tesla's not on it.

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/tlc/businesses/yellow_cab_hackup.page

[Rstrstx]

13. Their Model 3 is on it

Just above all the Toyotas

[lagomorph777]

9. If the number of cars was the real issue, gas cars would also be blocked.

This is corruption.

[FSogol]

11. NYC Just Shut Down a unregulated Taxi Fleet in Favor of safety regulations