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.
NY Times reports a huge sales slump to 337K vehicles for Q1, exactly inline with the robotaxi.news estimate of 335k from a few days ago. This is a true disaster for Tesla. Yet today their stock rose by over 5% due to it now being without a doubt a pure meme stock.
GM Authority reports that the Cruise saga is not yet over. GM and Cruise are being sued for misrepresenting AV advancements, in particular, having achieved level 4 autonomy.
Seeking Alpha reports on how Wells Fargo warns that their stock could fall by 50% after pathetically low deliveries are announced. Plus they are very skeptical about the June Cybercab rollout.
NY Times reports on how a Xiaomi vehicle in semi-autonomous mode drove into a concrete guardrail at 60mph, killing all three occupants. The vehicle only had camera sensors and not any type of LiDAR, which is obviously needed for autonomous driving.
Predictions are only predictions if they are both explained and recorded. So this is official prediction of Tesla tanking in June 2025.
electrek reports on how the purported Tesla launch of ‘unsupervised full self-driving’ in June is simply yet another empty promise. Tesla doesn't have the technology. And they are hiring teleoperation folks to get their cars out of the inevitable problematic situations they will encounter.
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.
electrek reports on how Tesla has had to remove "Full Self Driving" and "Autopilot" terms from the products it sells in China, given that they are patently not true. Also noteworthy that Chinese human drivers are receiving tickets for bad driving when the use the Tesla driver assist features.
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??
The Verge reports that now Lyft is also claiming to soon provide a robotaxi system, in Atlanta this summer. They will be purportedly use May Mobility autonomous technology, one that has not yet been proven.
electrek reports on a truly wild YouTube video by Mark Roper showing that without LiDAR that the Tesla's completely miss detecting objects in the middle of the road. And please, a moment of silence for the multiple mannequins that were completely demolished by the Tesla.
electrek reports that Petter Winberg, Tesla’s Principal Engineer for CAE crashing safety for the last decade, has joined the exodus of key employees from Tesla. Kind of hard to develop new products when your key people lose faith and leave.
Gizmodo reports on how Waymo robotaxis received 589 tickets in 2024 for a total of $65,000. Unfortunately this goes no where near covering the traffic havoc that the vehicles cause.
electrek reports on statements be Waymo ex-CEO John Krafcik on how Tesla isn't even trying to create a viable robotaxi. If they were, the design of the "cybercab" would be very different.
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.
