SF Gate – Confused Waymo shuts down Calif. restaurant’s drive-thru
SF Gate reports that Waymos still are bad drivers and sometimes get stuck. This time they blocked customers from getting their Chick-fil-A.
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 MoreSF Gate – Confused Waymo shuts down Calif. restaurant’s drive-thru
NY Times – Assisted Driving Tech in Focus After Fatal Electric Car Crash in China
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 – Austin Police Department officers move Waymo vehicles pulled over during severe weather
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 – Tesla Autopilot drives into Wile E Coyote fake road wall in camera vs lidar test
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 – Tesla’s top crash safety architect quits
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 – Former Waymo CEO on Tesla’s robotaxi launch: ‘there are many ways to fake a robotaxi service’
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 – Would you ride in a self-driving car? Survey says most Americans would not
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 – Britain blocks launch of Elon Musk’s self-driving Tesla
The Telegraph reports how Britain is upholding their safety standards and not allowing the use of Tesla FSD for now.
elektrec – Tesla is hit with a fresh class action about its self-driving claims, hardware 3 computer
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 – DOGE employee cuts fall heavily on agency that regulates Musk’s Tesla
Washington Post reports that the federal cuts being imposed by Elon Musk and DOGE are cutting the people that regulate robotaxis the most.
CarScoops – China’s Zeekr Recalls 1 EV In America
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 – Study Confirms That Alienating Drivers From Driving Is Not the Safest Approach
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%.
Tesla Cybertruck runs into stationary pole at high speed while in “autonomous” FSD mode
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 – Driverless taxi filled with passengers rear-ended by hit-and-run driver in downtown L.A.
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 – Elon Musk-approved Tesla Full Self-Driving dataset doubled: what’s the state of FSD now?
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.
