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 Chronicle reports that San Francisco Mayor Lurie has finally realized that Waymo robotaxis are only half baked and absolutely cannot handle large events and other complicated situations.
FastCompany reports that cities need to be able restrict robotaxis from areas where there are large events. Otherwise they tend to consistently cause havoc.
Well, well, well. Appears that the divorce between Waymo and Uber is now official. Though it must be said that Waymo was indeed the cause of a great deal of the congestion. Of course the real root of the problem is that some idiot decided to move the 4th of July fireworks to the Golden Gate Bridge where there is far more limited road and transit access. Plus far too many people decided to take cars, including Ubers.
Not only is Uber divorcing Waymo but they are also trying to sabotage robotaxis in general.
SF Standard reports that Waymos interfering with emergency responders continues to be completely out of hand. The examples are shocking.
The NHTSA writes a rather direct and nasty letter to robotaxi companies telling them to get their act together and stop interfering with emergency responders.
SF Standard reports on how once again Waymo vehicles are incompetent at driving and cause complete traffic chaos.
Business Insider reports that the DOT will likely grant robotaxi companies the ability to use an unlimited number of vehicles that cannot be driven by a human. But there is a big problem. When the robotaxi goes haywire and blocks traffic then an emergency responder will not be able to drive the vehicle so that it is out of the way.
New York Times reports on how Waymo robotaxis won't be on the streets of some major cities, including New York, within the foreseeable future. Turns out there are lots of issues.
Reuters reports that Tesla has once again exaggerated its safety claims creating “an urgent safety problem.” So why is FSD still allowed to be used on our public streets?
SF Chronicle reports on some serious problems with Waymo customer service.
SF Chronicle conducted a poll and found that only 42% consider the robotaxis to be a "good thing". Meanwhile, Brad Templeton does a really weird and inappropriate comparison to acceptance of elevators.
The San Antonio Express News reports that Waymo vehicles were programmed to drive onto flooded roads. This poor decision caused one of the Waymo vehicles to wash downstream. Now Waymo is updating the software on all their 3,800 vehicles to avoid this really stupid idea.
Wired reports that Waymo is finally trying to address the problem of violating the law by providing service to unaccomanied minors. Though they should have dealt with this months ago when they first clearly knew about this problem.
SF Gate reports on how Mayor Lurie's bending of the laws and allowing Waymo vehicles on car-free Market Street has completely backfired. A year later Waymo is not providing service on Market Street because there are no adequate locations to drop off or pick up passengers. Instead, Market Street is now plagued by car drivers who wrongly think that all cars are now allowed on the "car-free" portion.
