Barefoot Investor Scott Pape reveals the one thing he refuses to invest in – despite a ‘1,000 per cent return’

The Barefoot Investor has revealed why he refuses to invest in Tesla, despite admitting he was wrong about the future popularity of self-driving taxis.

Scott Pape, 46, said in his column for The Daily Telegraph that he was not convinced that Tesla’s stock price would rise if the company succeeded in launching its own robo-taxis.

He gave his advice in response to a letter from a reader named Trevor, who asked if Barefoot Investor had “changed his position” on investing in Tesla.

“Ark Invest guru Cathie Wood just increased her stake in the company in preparation for the robo-taxis revolution,” he wrote.

“She predicts the global market will be $10 trillion, says Tesla will capture the largest share of that and predicts Tesla’s stock price will increase tenfold as a result.”

Trevor went on to describe Tesla founder Elon Musk as a “genius” who believes “robot taxis are the future” for the company.

“So, since the stock price has been falling a lot lately, is now the time to buy shares?” he wrote.

Australia’s favourite financial investor admitted he was wrong about the vehicles.

“For years I was very skeptical that fully autonomous driving would become a reality,” he wrote.

‘Still, I’m happy to admit that I was wrong.

‘Waymo, Google’s robo-taxi company, not only has self-driving taxis, but now provides 100,000 paid rides per week in the US (up from 50,000 a few months ago).’

Mr Pape then went on to say that self-driving cars have proven to be safer than cars driven by “stinking people,” and that there are fewer accidents.

“It seems like robotaxis are really the future in big cities,” he said.

Although the financial guru admitted he was wrong, he questioned the figures presented by Catherine Wood, CEO of Ark Invest.

“I wouldn’t want Cathie in the cockpit of my portfolio: According to Morningstar, which tracks her funds, her Ark Invest has destroyed $14 billion in assets over the past decade,” he said.

The Barefoot Investor was cynical again when he revealed the real reason he thinks Ms. Wood is pushing Tesla stock on her investors.

“When I look at her Tesla research, I understand why,” he said.

“It is pure propaganda by a fund manager who wants to drive up the share price of a company that they already own.”

Pape then questioned the validity of Wood’s research and wondered where she came from with her sweeping prediction that Tesla would make a 1,000 percent return on its investment.

“Well, Cathie predicts that in less than five years, a whopping 90 percent of Tesla’s future revenue will come from something that doesn’t exist yet: robotaxis,” he wrote.

‘To be fair, Elon Musk announced that Tesla was on track to have 1 million robo-taxis on the road… by 2020.’

Tesla has yet to release its robotaxis, which is expected to hit the market in 2020 (Photo of Tesla vehicles charging)

Barefoot Investor revealed that Tesla will have “zero robotaxis” by 2024. According to them, the website even states “in the fine print” that the company’s Autopilot “does not make the vehicle autonomous.”

Mr Pape said that while the company has not yet launched robo-taxis, he is confident that it will happen. However, he does not think investors will get rich from the launch of the new taxis.

“I’m still very skeptical at this point. After all, in China, the main selling point of robotaxis is that they are dirt cheap,” he wrote.

The investor said the financials are not enough to give people a big return on their investment, while in China base fares start at 83 cents, compared to the base fare of $3.73 for a human-driven taxi.

“That sounds to me like a race to the bottom with no driver,” said the Barefoot Investor.