Are robotaxis the future? Or now in the past?
Are robotaxis the future? Or now in the past?
The news media has expended considerable effort researching and publishing information about the robotaxi business. This channel highlights some of the important articles.
Inside EVs reports that the Tesla robotaxi reveal has been delayed by a couple of months. Importantly, they also cast doubts on Tesla being able to create a robotaxi in the first place.
Bloomberg reports that for now the Tesla robotaxi "introduction" has been delayed until October. Supposedly Tesla needs more time to "build additional vehicle prototypes", though of course they likely don't have any prototypes now, nor will they in October.
Article from Business Insider on how Tesla skews the data processing for their FSD system such that Elon Musk and "influencers" receive priority. This of course results in Musk and the influencers experiencing a completely skewed reality, which means that their statements on FSD are simply invalid.
Washington Post reports that "cyclists can't decide whether to fear or love self-driving cars" and then reports that most cyclists really don't think they are safe. Peculiar. They should have mentioned that the real problem with robotaxis is that it just means more cars, and all cars are a problem.
From Fox 10 in Phoenix. Not only did the police have to pull over another Waymo for driving dangerously, it was because once again the vehicle crossed the center line and drove into oncoming traffic.
Bloomberg opinion piece on how Tesla meeting Q2 sales projections hid a great deal of underlying bad financial news. And investors, at least some, are still falsely expecting Elon to magically pull a robotaxi rabbit out of a hat.
The San Francisco County Transportation Authority provides a final report for their Treasure Island autonomous shuttle test. While safe because the shuttle ran so slowly, the autonomous shuttle technology was found to be unreliable . The existing human driven 25-Treasure Island bus provides much more useful service and should be enhanced.
ABC7 reports on how a Tesla on Auto Pilot turned onto railroad tracks of an active train line.
NY Times reports that Cruise has hired a CEO and a Chief Legal Officer from the video game industry. They have also hired a Chief Communications and Marketing Officer.
SF Chronicle reports on how San Francisco has now become the 2nd city, after Phoenix, to allow anyone to hail Waymo robotaxi. No more waiting list. Happy tourists! Just like smiling tourists excitingly using Segway scooters in Golden Gate Park!
The SF Chronicle reports on how the CPUC has upheld its March decision to allow Waymo expansion to San Mateo County and Los Angeles. This was done even though local officials were very much against the expansion.
SF Examiner reports that the CPUC approved the previously agreed to $112,500 fine for Cruise for withholding information. This paltry fine will of course not affect the behavior of Cruise since it is currently burning a billion dollars a year.
AZFamily 5 reports on how a grandmother loaded her grandchild into a Tesla and walked around to the drivers door but was locked out due to battery having died without sending any warning notifications. Such a safety failure could have easily been deadly.
While Waymo has long claimed to the public and to the CPUC that they use only clean energy, it turns out their vehicles are actually embarrassingly dirty. And the worst part is that Waymo is trying to hide information from the public that would clearly show that they are not using renewable energy for their surprisingly inefficient vehicles.
The Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League put on an autonomous F1 "race" recently. The hype was impressive. The results: the slowest and crashiest F1 event ever!
