Cars, being fast moving and heavy, are quite dangerous. They should be well regulated for safety. But it turns out regulations can be bought and paid for by lobbying money…
San Francisco Examiner reports on how Waymo more than double the times in 2024 where it had paid lobbyists meet with city government officials. Biggest effort is trying to get permission to serve San Francisco Airport, which would be quite lucative for Waymo.
SF Examiner reports that the state court has rejected a lawsuit from December 2023 by the City of San Francisco. The lawsuit was attempting to overturn the California PUC's decision from October of 2023 to allow Waymo (and Cruise) to provide citywide robotaxi service.
Reuters reports on how NHTSA closes its probe into Cruise with respect to pedestrian safety. The probe was closed simply because Cruise is no longer viable.
Washington Post reports on how while the public continues to be very reluctant about robotaxis, the industry is planning on plowing ahead due to the expectation that the new Trump administration will gut safety standards.
NY Times reports details on how Tesla sales are slumping. Meanwhile, many investors still believe the hype that Tesla will succeed as a technology company, with robotaxis and robots. Yet is very questionable whether they will succeed in those endeavors.
Mission Local reports on how Waymo is trying to inch towards providing service at SF Airport, which would provide a huge financial bonus to the company.
TheVerge reports on how the Federal Government is proposing changing standards for autonomous vehicles, but that they expect a great deal of safety related data in return. At the same time, Tesla is trying to avoid having to provide the government with crash data since they have so many crashes.
Reuters reports on how the Trump transition team is trying to eliminate the requirement for Tesla to provide data on just how dangerous their "self-driving" system actually is.
Jalopnik reports in how a Wall Street analyst wrongly thinks that robotaxis will be less expensive than regular cars due to steering wheel and pedals not needed
Yes, it is true that Musk will try to modify federal rules for robotaxis in order to allow vehicles without controls for human drivers. But it should be very clear to everyone that Tesla does not have the necessary technology, nor is the robotaxi business a viable one, especially in the next four years. Therefore even if Musk is successful in changing the regulations it won't actually make a difference.
TechCrunch reports that Cruise is being fined $500,000 because they withheld information from regulators. They are also being investigated by the NHTSA for issues with pedestrians, and with the SEC for financial issues.
Not Just Bikes posts an epic video on not just the problems of self driving cars, but how they would turn our cities into driving hell - unless we do something about it.
Reuters reports that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is finally requiring the robotaxi companies to report critical information on incidents. Instead of reporting being optional once past the test phase of an implementation, it will be mandatory to report collisions and when vehicles simply get stuck in traffic or receive tickets.
