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.
Bloomberg reports that current US law limits number of vehicles without driver controls to 2,500/year. This means that even if Tesla somehow came up with a real "cybercab", they would be limited to producing just a very small number of them, making it economically unviable.
Streetsblog reports on a new paper from researchers at Duke, Stanford, U-C Berkeley and the University of Chicago. The paper describes why electric vehicles are only slightly better than ones with internal combustion engines, and that therefore EV subsidies should be rethought. This is very relevant to robotaxis since the companies falsely claim that they are beneficial to society because they are EVs.
Business Insider reports on how the Tesla robotaxi is still no where close to being viable. They do not have the necessary technology, are not even developing it, will not be able to deal with the many regulations, and will have great deal of trouble catching up with other companies.
Gizmodo reports on how the "robots" at the Tesla robotaxi reveal event were no robots at all, but instead just teleoperated (manually controlled). No AI. No cool tech. Just another lie by Elon Musk.
Jalopnik reports on how the "robots" at the Tesla robotaxi reveal event were no robots at all, but instead just teleoperated (manually controlled). No AI. No cool tech. Just another lie by Elon Musk.
Elon Musk gives a lame presentation about robotaxis and Tesla stock drops by a whopping $88.5B. Ouch! It is clear that Tesla will not be producing a robotaxi system, a lower-cost car, nor useful robots in the foreseeable future.
Yes, it was just a faked presentation. Just awful.
NPR does some excellent reporting before the Tesla "robotaxi reveal" event on October 10th. Key point is that Musk has consistently promised robotaxis next year, for years!
The San Mateo County Transportation Authority has published their 126 page draft Automated Vehicles Strategic Plan. While it is good to see that a transportation authority is trying to understand the ramifications of the technology and develop an actual plan, it is unfortunate that they are still misguided with respect to robotaxis improving safety. The key problem is that the drivers who cause safety problems by speeding are not and will not be switching over to using robotaxis. Even if robotaxis are eventually safer than human drivers, they won't make a difference if the problem human drivers won't use them.
Andrew Hawkings at the Verge wrote a truly great article on how the Tesla "robotaxi reveal" will be a joke.
Tesla is "revealing" their robotaxi system in just a few days, on October 10th. But things are going quite badly for them. They really need a great hype event. So what is going to happen when their event turns out to be a disappointing flop???
SF Examiner reports on how Waymo is using a charity as a cynical marketing ploy. They are using Waymo vehicles to deliver food for a charity. Of course to deliver food you need a human driver. If Waymo really wants to make a charitable contribution, they should simply donate money directly to the organization.
SF Chronicle reports on how a problem with autonomous vehicles is that passengers are trapped when they get harassed. Certainly expect more of this to happen.
An old article from the Financial Times on the difficulties encountered when rolling out autonomous vehicles. Since this article is quite relevant to the upcoming October 10th Tesla robotaxi fiasco, it is worth reading again today.
David Zipper reports in Fast Company on how the automobile industry managed to prevent this dire needed technology from being required. Identical speed assist systems are already required in Europe on new cars, even ones manufactured in the US. The automobile companies already have to provide this!
