Are robotaxis the future? Or instead, the past?
Are robotaxis the future? Or instead, 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.
Business Insider reports that Tesla is resorting to more hype and has announced their robotaxi app for for the Bay Area. Note that there are no actual reports of the service existing and being used.
Tim Redmond of 48hills reports on how the SFMTA Board has completely handed its authority over to the mayor, illegally.
Susan Vaughan reports in 48hills that SF Mayor Lurie is both gutting transit and subverting the political process in trying to bring Waymos, Ubers, and Lyfts to car-free Market Street.
ABC7 News reports that once again Waymos are a target for people, especially drunk bros in the Marina District. Nothing new there. But the odd thing is that ABC7 News included short interview with Selika Josiah Talbott who unfortunately doesn't understand AI nor how AVs are trained.
Sophia Tung gathers a couple of robotaxi engineers to test ride a Zoox. It doesn't go very well.
SF Standard reports that while the San Francisco mayor has (falsely) decreed that ride hailing cars can go back onto Market Street, fortunately the ride-hailing companies are still avoiding it.
SF Examiner reports that Waymo has quietly tripled the number of vehicles in the San Francisco area, without disclosing the increases until now. No wonder traffic is getting worse and worse.
Gothamist reports that the opposition to NYC's Waymo pilot is quickly growing, especially amongst actual humans who drive taxis.
KRON 4 reports that Waymo is allegedly now picking up passengers on Market Street. Interestingly, they have zero examples of that actually happening.
Reuters reports that Tesla could have settled their previous lawsuit for $60 million but insisted on fighting it which resulted in a much larger settlement of $243 million. Whoops!
SF Chronicle reports that the DA is charging multiple counts of vandalism for allegedly damaging multiple Waymo vehicles. It appears that one of the charges is for a "coning" that caused no damage.
Fox Business reports that GM is supposedly getting back into the autonomous vehicle business, but not for robotaxis this time.
electrek reports on how Tesla not lost the most recent trial to a tune of $243 million but they also tried to hide relevant data. They will likely fare even worse in the upcoming trial in California.
TechCrunch reports that all that talk by Elon Musk on how the Dojo AI supercomputer was going to be key to Tesla autonomous driving. Well, it turns out to be complete BS and the project has been shut down.
The Verge interviews the lawyer behind the $243 million award and discusses how this is just the start of a morass of legal problems for Tesla.
