Are robotaxis the future? Or instead, the past?
Are robotaxis the future? Or instead, the past?
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…
SF Examiner reports that Waymo continues to be incredible when it comes to working with cities and revealing even basic data, like the number of vehicles they operate in a city.
KXAN reports that the Austin Police Department had to move a bunch of Waymo "autonomous" vehicles that couldn't handle the weather and pulled over where they blocked traffic. Not exactly autonomous, are we Waymo??
A great deal of ink has been spilled (pixels have been pushed??) on how Tesla received first of the permits needed to run a robotaxi service. Fanboys got excited! But this permit has absolutely nothing to do with robotaxis. It simply is a permit to run an app-based Uber like system with human drivers. This is of course not something that Tesla actually plans on doing. Therefore it is a complete nothing of an announcement. Thankfully TechCrunch clarifies the situation.
Reuters reports on how Tesla stock has long defied gravity (also known as investors being fleeced), and points out that it appears the smoke and mirrors might finally come to a crashing close.
USA Today reports on a study by AAA showing that most Americans do not want to use a self-driving car. Kind of hard to have a multi-billion business when most people are simply not interested.
The Telegraph reports how Britain is upholding their safety standards and not allowing the use of Tesla FSD for now.
Washington Post misleadingly reports that Tesla has taken a significant step towards providing robotaxi service in California. But actually the permit from the CPUC only allows for passengers to use Teslas as a human-driven taxi service. Tesla hasn't even applied for a permit from the DMV to operate driver-less vehicles in California.
Washington Post reports that the federal cuts being imposed by Elon Musk and DOGE are cutting the people that regulate robotaxis the most.
Wired reports on how far Elon Musk's reputation has suffered, and how it could easily drag down the entire company with him. This is yet another nail in the coffin for Tesla's robotaxi endeavors.
Forbes reports that Automatic Emergency Braking has been shown to be effective, yet the mandate for it might be killed by the Trump administration.
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.
San Francisco Chronicle reports on how robotaxis are taking up valuable property that was was intended for housing.
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.
