I doubt Tesla really cares all that much. The link says Texans can easily buy Teslas from Tesla, but they have to complete the paperwork before the car ships to Texas. It seems like a very minor inconvenience compared to dealing with the various California regulations and bureaucrats.
Tesla is building a factory in Texas. What does the law mean whenever the car itself was made in the state? Does it need to leave the state and then re-enter? Serious question. Teslarati reported that's the case, so if they're right, I assume Tesla cares very much about the law changing, as it would save them quite a bit of money:
I doubt it. Car dealerships are still very politically powerful.
They are major contributors to state legislative and congressional races, support local charities, etc and employ lots of well-paid local staff.
As electric becomes more common, that will tip as manufacturers buyout dealerships. But that will take awhile and bigger dealers are gobbling up little dealers in the meantime. IMO, the dealers will be less of a big deal as they consolidate into regional players. Dealers were a barrier to Tesla selling cars at all -- they have traction now. Plus, the Uber-consolidated dealerships will continue to consolidate operations and shed overhead costs in the process) Even Coca Cola still has 60-70 independent bottler franchises.
I doubt car dealers will have much of a future in a world were you can just hop in a robotaxi for very little money and not have to spend on parking, fuel, maintenance, registration fees, etc.
I sold my car in 2018 and have been living car-free in Los Angeles since then. For the times they are a-changin'...
Unless you have quite a nice car or otherwise live in some logistical niche, rideshare is going to be quite a lot more expensive than car ownership. Some people will be able to replace some of their driving with public transit, walking, or cycling, but most people can't because public transit isn't feasible and commuting distances are too great for walking or cycling (this is especially true for people who aren't in peak health or who have families or pets or anything else that they need to regularly transport). Until "robotaxis" actually refers to fully-autonomous taxi services, I don't think we're going to see wide-scale movement away from car ownership. Remember that HN skews urban and our bubbles aren't indicative of the real world.
This is not the case for likely 90% of the country. Note that I'm currently in Chicago where we have much better public transit (in addition to rideshare) options than you do in Los Angeles, but most of America doesn't have the population density to support it.
I'm in Chicago as well. Yesterday I had to go downtown during rush hour and Lyft wanted $15. I'm not sure if this is normal (although I believe we have a hefty tax on rideshare to downtown, at least during rush hour), but at that point it's significantly cheaper to pay the $10/day or whatever that the parking garages charge (of course this isn't factoring in the cost of ownership nor is it considering other transit options).
