TechCrunch – A self-driving car in Texas hit and killed a mother duck, sparking neighborhood outrage
TechCrunch reports that an AVRide autonomous vehicle drove over and killed a mother duck - and Austinites are rightfully outraged.
Robotaxi.news
Are robotaxis the future? Or instead, the past?
Robotaxi.news
Are robotaxis the future? Or instead, the past?
News
The news media has expended considerable effort researching and publishing information about the robotaxi business. This channel highlights some of the important articles.
Read MoreTechCrunch – A self-driving car in Texas hit and killed a mother duck, sparking neighborhood outrage
StreetsBlog NYC – With Waymo Testing Halted, We Have A Rare Chance To Get Ahead of the ‘Driverless Revolution’
Sam Schwartz and Kelly McGuinness report in StreetsBlog NYC on how that now Waymo robotaxis are paused that this is an opportune time to look into whether robotaxis are useful in the first place. A key point is that if safety is the goal then clearly public transit should be promoted instead.
SF Examiner – Waymo rolls out new vehicles in San Francisco
SF Examiner reports on the new Zeekr vehicles that Waymo wants to use. Though since there is currently a 100% tariff on importing Chinese vehicles into the US, these vehicles are likely to not be a widespread solution due to their cost.
The City – Waymo’s Robot Car Testing Ends in NYC After Permits Expire
The City reports that Waymo's permits to test some of their robotaxis in New York City has ended. And their permission to run vehicles in the state of New York has reached a dead end. NYC is simply not read for robotaxis, given they have far more cars there than is useful. It appears Waymo never expected to hit such a speed bump in their deployment.
NY Times – Robot Taxis Stop in Traffic in Chinese City, Stranding Travelers
NY Times reports on how Baidu had a major outage in Wuhan, stranding passengers in the middle of busy streets and even causing at least one collision. In fact, robotaxis from China have had a very questionable safety record.
Wired – Tesla Admits Its Robotaxis Are Sometimes Driven by Remote Humans
Wired reports that Tesla acknowledges that their "robotaxis" are sometimes actually driven by humans. This is of course not a surprise given the Tesla Optimus robots are known to actually be just teleoperated puppets. Certainly is peculiar that the company is valued at $1.4T based on robotaxis and humanoid robots.
Benzinga – Elon Musk’s Tesla Ride-Hailing Service Isn’t A Robotaxi, California Regulator Says
Benzinga reports that the California Public Utilities Commission has declared that Tesla does not have true autonomous capability and therefore does not have an actual robotaxi system. Whoops. You can always count on Elon to not speak the truth.
404 Media – Delivery Robot Drives Through Bus Stop Shelter, Shattering Glass Everywhere
404 Media reports that a food delivery clanker shattered the glass on a bus shelter and then spread the shards all over the sidewalk. Also note that Chicagoans definitely not into food delivery clankers.
Business Insider – Best reporting on robotaxis ever
Business Insider provides a truly informative documentary on the current state of robotaxis. Covers everything from cost to safety. But most importantly, it asks if we are even asking the right questions, and whether we should instead be looking at how some cities made their streets much safer ... without any robotaxis at all. A must watch.
Austin American-Statesman – Tesla, Waymo report new Austin crashes as robotaxi operations face increasing scrutiny
Austin American-Statesman reports that both Waymo and Tesla are all crashy-crashy in Austin. Frankly, it is quite amazing that they claim that autonomous vehicles are safe when they get into so many mishaps.
NBC Bay Area – Complaint filed over Waymo allegedly transporting minors alone
NBC Bay Area reports on how rideshare drivers filed a formal complaint with the CPUC alleging that Waymo "has been knowingly violating the conditions of its state permit by transporting unaccompanied minors." This is a known and ongoing problem that Waymo has acknowledged occurs.
Bloomberg – Here Comes the Self-Driving Traffic Surge
Bloomberg reports that with autonomous vehicles we should expect a significant increase in traffic, making it yet another tragedy of the commons.
electrek – Former Uber self-driving chief crashes his Tesla on FSD, exposes supervision problem
electrek reports on how Tesla FSD relies on humans taking over when things go wrong, yet this is an impossible task. It takes too long for human drivers to context shift and take over driving. And since Tesla FSD is not full autonomy, the human driver is fully responsible for the inadequacies of the semi-autonomous system.
NY Times – Trapped! Inside a Self-Driving Car During an Anti-Robot Attack.
NY Times reports on an additional issue with riding in a Waymo robotaxi: one might be the subject of a great deal of hostility.
NY Times – Driverless Big Rigs Are Coming to American Highways, and Soon
NY Times reports on how automous trucks are coming to certain highways (Texas) soon. But no one knows if they will cause serious safety problems due to phantom braking.
