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.
See original article by Sue Vaughan at Burning Planet, which contains more useful articles about climate change and transportation. The California Public Utilities Commission is now reneging on a possible evaluation of the environmental impacts of Waymos and Cruises – and other commercial autonomous vehicles that may be authorized to…
See full original article and more at DawnProject.com Tesla supporters frequently point to Euro New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP)’s tests of Tesla vehicles to claim that Tesla vehicles are far safer than other manufacturers, and that Tesla’s active safety systems protect those around them. Elon Musk himself has relied on Euro NCAP’s…
Article in Rolling Stone by Ed Niedermeyer. Covers how Tesla’s self-driving technology is inherently flawed.
Article from Barrons on how the self-driving car market was an overhyped bubble. That bubble has now popped, as seen by combined market cap of five self-driving vehicle start-ups dropping by a whopping 95%.
Article from Washington Post on how there have been at least eight fatal or serious Tesla crashes where Autopilot was being used on a road where it should not have been enabled in the first place.
Article from SF Standard by Joshua Bote. Covers how Cruise and Waymo spent a great deal of effort and money to went over support from local groups, including disability groups. It worked, and the groups continue to support robotaxis even after the numerous problems they have caused.
Article on Reuters. Covers how a judge has ruled that Cruise withheld key information with respect to the October 2nd crash where a pedestrian was dragged and severely injured.
Article from Curbed. Interesting because describes what taking a robotaxi is really like, and how it turns out to not be that useful, especially given how slow they can be.
Article from the SF Standard by Josh Koehn. Covers how not only did Cruise and Waymo report spending $2.3m to lobby state and local politicians to allow them to use our roads as a testing ground, but Cruise did not report hiring Axiom Advisors, close partners with Governor Newsom, until after key CPUC hearing.
Article from Forbes by Brad Templeton. A discussion with a personal injury lawyer on legal issues associated with the incident where a pedestrian was dragged and injured by a Cruise vehicle.
Seminal article from Forbes by Cyrus Farivar that broke the story on how pedestrian was hit and dragged for 20’ by Cruise vehicle. This article completely changed the narrative of the incident. Note: Robotaxi Insider, a frequent contributor to the site, provided the source material to the reporter to break this important story.
See full original article by Pete Bigelow at Automotive News. Editors note: this is a key article because the reporter viewed video from the Cruise vehicle and explains how the pedestrian was not suddenly “hurled” or “flung” into the path of the Cruise. Instead, the pedestrian was not severely impacted…
See full original article and more at DawnProject.com Santa Barbara, CA – Public Safety Advocacy Group The Dawn Project has released footage showing that a Full Self-Driving Tesla can easily be turned into a driverless robotaxi with just a few household items. These everyday objects easily circumvent the vehicle’s driver monitoring…
Driverless taxi companies Cruise and Waymo wined and dined officials and landed a plum regulatory appointment before they scored free rein on San Francisco’s streets. See full original article on The Lever by Freddy Brewster. In the lead-up to California regulators voting earlier this month to allow driverless taxis to…
Article from SF Standard by Josh Koehn. Goes in depth about the lobbyists who are used to sway the regulators and the politicians. $2.3 million!
