Michael Smith

Transportation and disability advocate. Created and administer the site Robotaxi.rodeo . Co-founded Walk San Francisco (walkSF.org), Swiftly (goSwift.ly), and NextBus (NextBus.com). Working to make transportation accessible and safe for all. Been disabled by serious long COVID since 2022.

Joined: 12/17/2023
Articles: 41

$$$, News, Safety, Waymo

Instead of providing safety data, Waymo provides other data to get almost free labor

Michael Smith
03/25/24

Waymo announces another data challenge, but still refuses to provide safety related data. And they are only paying in Google Cloud credits.

Cruise, Safety

A letter from Cruise leadership

Michael Smith
03/25/24
Rev 03/26/24

Cruise posts an update on their blog indicating that they are doing all this great stuff with respect to safety, yet there is absolutely no new information. Why on earth did they post this article??

$$$, Cruise, Disability, Untruths

The Cruise Origin Was Always Doomed

Michael Smith
03/23/24

The Cruise Origin was hyped as being the future of robotaxis, providing low-cost service to everyone, including to people with disabilities. But it turns out it was indeed just hype, and now is a cancelled project. This means more though then just warehousing a bunch of unpermitted vehicles. It means that Cruise has no way of ever succeeding as a business.

$$$, News, Untruths

SPACtacular! Autonomous Vehicle companies hit by wave of financial flimflammery

Michael Smith
03/21/24

Epic article on the relationship between financial dodgy SPACs and autonomous vehicle companies. Explains what SPACs are, and goes into detail on who the AV companies who used them have either already flamed out or will do so relatively soon. No SPAC AV company will be spared.

$$$, News, Tesla

Tesla is in a pickle

Michael Smith
03/15/24

Tesla stock price has dropped tremendously so far in 2024. But expect it to drop much further due to inherent problems Tesla is simply failing to address. And this will sure cause FSD to wither away.

News

RDR-LESS bikes – A startup for autonomous bicycles!

Michael Smith
03/15/24

A startup for autonomous bikes - RDR-LESS! This is actually a parody video from 7 years ago. Incredibly funny.