(Reuters) – Tesla on Thursday unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi with two hinged doors and no steering wheel or pedals, but the glitzy event was short on details and disappointed investors who had hoped for more concrete plans.

CEO Elon Musk, who has a track record of being short on forecasts – and himself said he tends to be optimistic about time frames – didn’t say how quickly Tesla might ramp up robotaxi production, overcome inevitable regulatory hurdles or implement a business plan to take on robotaxi competitors to overtake.

Below are comments from investors, stock analysts and industry experts reacting to the robotaxis unveiling:

MATTHEW WANSLEY, PROFESSOR AT THE CARDOZO SCHOOL OF LAW IN NEW YORK

“What Tesla showed tonight was a lot of science fiction smoke and mirrors. What they haven’t shown yet is software that has the capabilities of an automated driving system… Musk still needs to prove that a purely visionary approach to automation is feasible. And he didn’t address this issue tonight.

“The big unanswered question with Tesla is simply that the software is so far behind where the rest of the industry is today.”

BRYANT WALKER SMITH, Professor of Law, University of South Carolina

“Tesla once again claimed that actual automated driving is still a year or two away – just as the company has been claiming for a decade. In fact, Tesla’s entire event was reminiscent of 2014, except that no automated vehicles were actually in use in 2014.” Now there are real AVs carrying real people on real roads, but none of them are Teslas. That just made the irony even more obvious.

KC BOYCE, VICE PRESIDENT AT DATA ANALYTICS AND CONSULTING COMPANY ESCALENT

“I had pretty low expectations for the event considering Tesla has a history of over-promising and under-delivering. In that sense, it met my expectations: it was a typical Tesla announcement full of hype and a silver lining.”

“The vision-only system that Tesla has chosen compromises their capabilities compared to Waymo and Cruise, which have chosen the approach to autonomy. Nevertheless, Tesla has a potential advantage from its existing fleet and the ‘vision’ data available from it. I’m skeptical about whether this data advantage actually exists.” That’s enough to close the sensor gap.”

BRIAN MULBERRY, CUSTOMER PORTFOLIO MANAGER, ZACKS INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

“When you know as little detail as he (Musk), it’s a little difficult to see what measurable impact it will have on returns, at least in the short term.”

“We are somewhat cautious about the event overall as the lack of detail is certainly worrying. The lack of detail means to us that we didn’t get more clarity. So in terms of Robotaxi revenues having a positive impact on earnings per share, we’re, “We still see it being six, seven, eight years away.”

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HANNAH YEE-FEN LIM, PROFESSOR, NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

“(The two-seater design) is not practical at all. The people who really need door-to-door service may be the elderly, young people or those who cannot otherwise access public transport. Just having those two seats, that’s not going to work.

“But actually the two-seater design is probably the least of the problems because the technology really isn’t there yet. When (Musk) says there’s no radar and no lidar now… I don’t think it can perceive the environment correctly, and if you can’t perceive the environment correctly, no AI algorithm is going to help you, that car to drive safely.”

COLIN LANGAN, ANALYST AT WELLS FARGO

“The Cybercab demos were conducted on a film set in a well-controlled environment and were very similar to a slow and short ride at an amusement park. Waymo now hosts 100,000 rides per week in major cities, so we expected more from Tesla’s demo.”

CRIJN BOUMAN, CEO of EV CHARGING SOLUTIONS COMPANY ROCSYS

“The vehicle is one thing, but the other thing is the operation – how to run a profitable business… The charging, the cleaning – all of those things need to be addressed.”

“The fundamental thing about robotaxi is that the vehicle should be available almost around the clock. Every time it is charged it does not generate any revenue and therefore does not make the vehicle profitable. So you need a fast charging feature and (inductive charging) is usually for low power environments so it takes hours and hours to charge, so I’m wondering if there is a fast charging option.”

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Compiled by Deborah Sophia and Rishi Kant; Editing by Anil D’Silva)