Wired – Uber’s Autonomous Vehicle Strategy: Slow Their Adoption
Not only is Uber divorcing Waymo but they are also trying to sabotage robotaxis in general.
Robotaxi.news
Are robotaxis the future? Or instead, the past?
Robotaxi.news
Are robotaxis the future? Or instead, the past?
Safety
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.
Read MoreWired – Uber’s Autonomous Vehicle Strategy: Slow Their Adoption
SF Standard – Delays, detours, and passed-out riders: Waymos keep blocking SF firefighters
SF Standard reports that Waymos interfering with emergency responders continues to be completely out of hand. The examples are shocking.
NHTSA sends letter to robotaxi companies telling them to quit interfering with emergency responders
The NHTSA writes a rather direct and nasty letter to robotaxi companies telling them to get their act together and stop interfering with emergency responders.
SF Chronicle – Two Bay Area teens up to ‘trouble’ in a Waymo nabbed by police
SF Chronicle reports that a couple of wayward teens managed to ride in a Waymo unaccompanied, which is not legal in California. Drinking, shooting of projectiles, and general hilarity ensued.
SF Standard – Waymos stalled and snarled traffic after SF’s biggest fireworks show in years
SF Standard reports on how once again Waymo vehicles are incompetent at driving and cause complete traffic chaos.
The Independent – I used a self-driving car for 100 days. These are the mistakes it kept making
The Independent reports on how a Tesla using FSD was tested for 100 days and experienced more than 500 safety-critical events that requred driver intervention or revealed an important limitation.
Business Insider – Trump’s DOT proposes new rules for driverless vehicles
Business Insider reports that the DOT will likely grant robotaxi companies the ability to use an unlimited number of vehicles that cannot be driven by a human. But there is a big problem. When the robotaxi goes haywire and blocks traffic then an emergency responder will not be able to drive the vehicle so that it is out of the way.
LA Times – Kids sit in windows as Waymo travels through Westside. Witness alerts company; car doesn’t stop
Once again Waymo allows unattended kids to ride in a Waymo, in violation of California law. And rather shocking they did not stop the ride when they knew the kids were acting dangerously.
Reuters – US senators ask for review of Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ safety data, citing Reuters report
Reuters reports that Tesla has once again exaggerated its safety claims creating “an urgent safety problem.” So why is FSD still allowed to be used on our public streets?
SF Chronicle – ‘Do better’: San Francisco is fed up with this Waymo behavior
SF Chronicle reports that Waymos aren't content to have seriously injured a bicyclist in San Francisco due to not following the traffic laws. Now they appear to park in bike lanes in a regular basis.
CNN – ‘Driving like teenagers’: Waymo robotaxis have run red lights and nearly hit pedestrians, CNN finds
CNN investigated the safety of Waymo robotaxis and found that while in some ways they drive more safely than humans, in other ways they introduce whole new safety problems.
NY Times – Waymo Suspends Service in Six Cities After Cars Drove Into Flooded Roads
NY Times reports on how Waymo robotaxis do really dumb things when encountering flooded streets. They drive in and any passengers are then stuck!
SF Standard – Waymo suspends all freeway rides over safety issues
SF Standard reports that once again Waymo offers service and then has to rescind it because it wasn't at all safe. This time it turns out that Waymos have been suspended from all freeways and from any flooded roadways. Sure would have been nice if they knew of these problems before inflicting them onto the public.
Findings – Millions of Trips, “Waymo” Empty Miles: California’s First Thousand Days of Commercial Robotaxi Service
Findings provides a report on how half the Waymo miles are void of passengers, simply increasing congestion.
TechCrunch – Tesla reveals two Robotaxi crashes involving teleoperators
TechCrunch reports that Tesla robotaxis go crashy crashy. And this happened while a teleoperator was remotely driving the vehicles!
