From Joe Tegtmeyer.
Before we get ahead of ourselves, you may be wondering why I’m in Switzerland talking about Tesla Robotaxi service while learning about Electric Buses and the operations & fleet management approach. Well, this trip to Basil, Switzerland started 4 years ago as I was completing another Giga Texas Construction video.
It was at the end of one of my Giga Texas drone flights where I met Manuel "Mannie" Köpfli who is a big Tesla fan and the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of Basler Verkehrs-Betriebe (BVB) located at Unternehmensstab, Informatik Claragraben 55, 4058 Basel.
Don’t Forget to see the BONUS coverage at the end of the video!
This fortuitous meeting ultimately resulted in me visiting his company, BVB, and learning about what it takes to put a massive new transportation system into operation and then manage that system 24/7. It is not as easy as it may seem!
With that background, this explains why I visited Basel where they have made an ambitious commitment: to convert their entire public transportation network to run on 100% renewable energy by 2027.
In fact, the local transport operator Basler Verkehrs-Betriebe (BVB) has added more than 130 electric buses to the city, with a full end-to-end charging solution, including overnight charging at the depots and fast-charging stations at key stops.
It’s not just the buses or charger systems themselves, though, of course— it’s also the supporting ecosystem, from operations and fleet management, including cleaning, maintenance & their related facilities, customer facing services, regulatory oversight, and more that needs to be put into place and then constantly managed.
This is what brought me here as these kinds of issues, infrastructure, operations and fleet management that Tesla with the Robotaxi service needs to ensure are well throughout and ready to operate day-in and day-out, without fail in ever growing locations and service areas around the US & eventually many countries around the world.
I hope you like this discussion and information and that it provides some insights into the challenges Tesla is likely facing as it prepares to expand and scale its Robotaxi service!
Thank you to Mannie and Peter Hostettler for setting up this trip and making it possible!
