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…
FastCompany looks at a database of problems the San Francisco transit agency has had with Waymos, and it turns out to be far worse than Waymo lets on to.
BBC reports on how and why the San Francisco group Safe Street Rebel is disabling Waymo vehicles.
SF Standard reports that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors grilled Waymo on the epic disaster when 1,500 Waymos got stuck during a power outage. Waymo has still not acknowledged that a large part of the problem was that cellular communications completely went down for swaths of San Francisco once the backup batteries for the cell towers ran out of juice. Waymo's only solution for this problem is not talking about.
We already knew that remote operators were involved in driving Waymo "autonomous" vehicles. But this NTSB report provides a concrete example of the remote operator dangerously providing incorrect information, causing the Waymo robotaxi to pass by a stopped school bus. Credit goes to Phil Koopman for calling out this problem.
NY Times reports on how the state of New York is expected to withdraw its proposal for expanding autonomous vehicles outside of New York City. The humans (mostly labor groups and taxi drivers) have spoken!
The Verge reports that Waymo is still trying to hide that remove drivers in the Philippines are actually controlling the vehicles in some situations.
electrek reports that Tesla has dodged a 30-day suspension in California by finally changing their false marketing campaigns. Tesla is completely dropping "AutoPilot" and will only refer to FSD through the amazing contradiction of "Full Self Driving (supervised)"
Washington Post Editorial Board publishes absolute nonsense on the safety of autonomous vehicles, in the hopes of minimizing safety regulations. The Washington Post used to be an important newspaper, but clearly no longer.
Wired reports that Washington DC politicians have seen how things have gone elsewhere and want some good answers about safety before allowing Waymo to operate in the city.
KTLA reports that the California Teamsters union is pushing to get Waymo robotaxis off the streets due to them recently hitting and injuring a child and also going passed stopped school buses illegally.
TechCrunch reports that Waymo is under yet another investigation for violating traffic safety laws and passing by stopped school buses, some with children crossing the street. This investigation is by the National Transportation Safety Board. They do not actually regulate the Waymo robotaxis, but they are experts in conducting safety investigations.
SF Chronicle reports that parents continue to knowingly break California regulations and allow their kids to ride in Waymos unaccompanied. And Waymo doesn't seem to care in the least that they are regularly violating their state permit. What could possibly go wrong??
SF Chronicle reports that Waymo continues to try to hide necessary safety related information about the extensive problems that occurred during the power blackout. They clearly are trying their best to not work with the regulators.
SF Chronicle reports on the buffonery that occurred between City Hall and Waymo during the recent power outage. Clearly neither the city nor Waymo was prepared for such a serious problem.
And it is definitely past time for Mayor Lurie to acknowledge that illegally allowing Waymos on car-free Market Street was a huge mistake on his part.
SF Chronicle reports that even more San Franciscans are going to be upset with Waymo now that they are regularly taking up public parking spaces.
