Are robotaxis the future? Or instead, the past?
Are robotaxis the future? Or instead, the past?
All the robotaxi companies claim that their safety is much better than obsolete human drivers. But are they really safer given that they seem to crash so often? This clearly needs to be investigated further.
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.
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??
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.
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.
USA Today reports on a study by AAA showing that most Americans do not want to use a self-driving car. Kind of hard to have a multi-billion business when most people are simply not interested.
The Telegraph reports how Britain is upholding their safety standards and not allowing the use of Tesla FSD for now.
elektrec reports that Tesla has been hit by another class action lawsuit, this one in Australia. The lawsuit is due to dangerous braking and also Tesla misrepresenting the capabilities so its "self-driving" system.
Washington Post reports that the federal cuts being imposed by Elon Musk and DOGE are cutting the people that regulate robotaxis the most.
CarScoops reports on how Waymo is already having trouble with importing Zeekr EVs, which are intended to replace the Jaguars used for robotaxi service. The Zeekr have already been recalled 3 times for safety issues.
AutoEvolution reports on a study that shows that only some ADAS systems actually improve safety. These useful features include Lane Keeping Assist (LKA), which reduces crash probability by 19.1%. The second most effective safety driving aid was the Driver Monitoring System (DMS), which lowered accident risks by 14%. Finally, we also have Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), with the third-highest crash rate reduction of 10.7%.
A Tesla Cybertruck being driven autonomously by FSD does not detect a very large traffic pole and jumps the curb and crashes right into it. This happened immediately in front of an elementary school, that was fortunately closed at the time.
KTLA reports that a Waymo was rear ended by a hit-and-run driver. 3 of the 4 passengers in the Waymo were transported to the hospital due to injuries.
elektrek reports that the head of FSD at Tesla has stated that based on this data FSD still needs a 1,400x further improvement to enable unsupervised self-driving.
ABC7 reports on Waymo's driving through a sinkhole at full speed, even though the intersection was closed. Video of course is worth 1,000 words.
