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Tesla bros, it turns out, can be pretty sore losers.
On the crypto-based prediction hub Polymarket, some of the automaker’s diehards can’t accept that they’re about to lose a boatload of money after betting that their hero Elon Musk would launch a public robotaxi service in June. Which he didn’t, by the way; the trial is limited to a few people with an invite, and beyond that, the most notable thing it’s accomplished was earn the attention of federal regulators for flubs like violating traffic laws.
Now, with July in full effect, the Tesla bettors are begging the site admins to let them win anyway, with some already crying foul if they don’t get what they want.
“This is a public launch,” insisted one user who bought nearly 22,000 “Yes” shares on the bet titled, “Will Tesla launch a driverless Robotaxi service before July?”
Dismissing the “haterz,” the user added: “If they resolve this any other besides a YES, it’s called a scam.”
In a hilarious testament to their zeal, the total bet volume has shot up by nearly $1,000,000 from just a day or two earlier, when the Polymarket event should’ve already closed. All the while, the odds of the yes-camp winning haven’t budged from less than one percent.
Many of them were inspired by Musk calling out the bet weeks ago, guaranteeing easy riches for his followers.
“Money-making opportunity,” he wrote in a tweet pointing to the Polymarket event.
Musk’s tweet briefly caused the “yes” odds to surge, but the reality of the situation has since set in. Tesla is operating an extremely limited form of a Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, with only ten to 20 vehicles on the road. And with its myriad of caveats, it doesn’t appear to meet the bet’s definition.
In the rules section, it clearly states that a program restricted to “invite-only testers” will not qualify as a robotaxi service. Tesla’s program is currently invite-only, with most of the participants being Tesla “influencers.” In the past few days, it has reportedly begun inviting people outside this small pool of personalities, but it remains invite-only nonetheless.
Tesla’s service may fail on another count on top of that: it must not have a human in the vehicle who’s “positioned to take control,” the rules state. All of the robotaxis are currently supervised by a human “safety monitor” in the front passenger seat who can intervene to stop the vehicle (as we’ve already seen) and drive them if necessary (as we’ve also already seen.)
Try explaining any of this to the Polymarket bettors, though, and your words will fall on deaf ears. (And to be fair, if we had thousands of dollars riding on this decision, we probably wouldn’t take the loss well, either.)
Take one user who bought a staggering 825,000 shares in favor of yes, who insists that the tiny pool of people allowed to use the robotaxi service don’t count as “testers,” but “users.”
“The exclusion only affects invite-only testers, a subset of all invite-only users,” they explained. “Excluding a subset does not mean excluding the whole set.”
“If you reject that,” they added, “you’re rejecting basic set theory and by extension, the logic of this universe.”
The cosmos shudders at the plight of the wounded Tesla warrior. Won’t someone do something?
“Elon needs to step in and clarify the situation. His reputation is at stake,” commented another.
Epitomizing the outlook of Musk-worshipping tech bros and the specious nature of their pleas, another in the yes-camp sincerely cited a “conversation with Grok,” Musk’s X-integrated AI chatbot, as evidence in their favor.
So far, the Tesla bros have disputed the “no” decision twice. A final decision is slated to come down on Thursday.
More on Tesla: Tesla’s Self-Driving Mode Causes It to Get Hit by Train
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