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.
The NTSB collision summary is out for the January 23, 2026 incident where a Waymo collided with a child. It is very unfortunate that Waymo continues to try to blame a child for problems with its robotaxis.
BBC reports on how and why the San Francisco group Safe Street Rebel is disabling Waymo vehicles.
We already knew that remote operators were involved in driving Waymo "autonomous" vehicles. But this NTSB report provides a concrete example of the remote operator dangerously providing incorrect information, causing the Waymo robotaxi to pass by a stopped school bus. Credit goes to Phil Koopman for calling out this problem.
SF Standard reports that Waymo is planning on switching to Iioniq 5 cars, but those vehicles have been found to be quite unreliable. Not ideal when you are trying to operate a fleet of them, mostly remotely.
Greetings from KXAN Austin where a shooting resulted in 3 deaths, 14 injuries, and ambulances blocked by a Waymo that was probably being "driven" remotely, possibly all the way from the Philippines. And how did the Waymo manage to turn and block off the entire street?
electrek reports that Tesla has dodged a 30-day suspension in California by finally changing their false marketing campaigns. Tesla is completely dropping "AutoPilot" and will only refer to FSD through the amazing contradiction of "Full Self Driving (supervised)"
11 Alive from Atlanta reports that a Waymo, this time with a passenger, drives into the middle of an active crime scene where to policed officers were just injured in a shooting.
5 NBC DFW reports on how relying on the "self-driving" features of a Tesla can go incredibly wrong. Once again, a Tesla ran into emergency vehicles with their lights flashing. This completely demolishes the argument that AVs will help eliminate the dangers of drunk driving. Drunk driving is still drunk driving, even if one has some fancy, but half-baked, technology.
Newsweek reports that Waymo has finally publicly acknowledged that 1) their vehicles are not truly autonomous and need human help in driving in certain situations; and 2) this human driving help can be located many thousands of miles away, in the Philippines! No wonder Waymos run over kids and animals.
KTLA reports that the California Teamsters union is pushing to get Waymo robotaxis off the streets due to them recently hitting and injuring a child and also going passed stopped school buses illegally.
TechCrunch reports that a Waymo struck and injured a child. Waymo falsely claims that their system is safer than a human driver in this situation. But the reality is that the Waymo vehicle was not even carrying a passenger. It was driving empty. If a vehicle is owned and operated by a person than it wouldn't have been making that trip in the first place, thus sparing the child from being hit.
electrek reports that Tesla continues to try to hide as much as their safety data as possible, yet the data available still shows that they have a 3x crash rate compared to human drivers.
TechCrunch reports that Waymo is under yet another investigation for violating traffic safety laws and passing by stopped school buses, some with children crossing the street. This investigation is by the National Transportation Safety Board. They do not actually regulate the Waymo robotaxis, but they are experts in conducting safety investigations.
electrek reports on how Tesla robotaxis are still in no way automomous. Musk recently announced that Tesla would be operating service without a safety driver human in the car. Turns out the safety human is simply in another car following close behind. Just as the Tesla Optimus "robots" are simply teleoperated puppets, the Tesla robotaxis aren't actually autonomous. But hey, expect lots of BS at the earnings announcement on January 26 in order to keep the stock inflated as much as possible.
SF Chronicle reports that parents continue to knowingly break California regulations and allow their kids to ride in Waymos unaccompanied. And Waymo doesn't seem to care in the least that they are regularly violating their state permit. What could possibly go wrong??
