NY Times reports that Cruise has restarted operations in Dallas, Houston and Phoenix, though with human safety drivers. Article also reports that Cruise has lost $500 million for the first 6 months of 2024.
TechCrunch reports that a new date of October 10th has been set for the Tesla robotaxi "unveiling". Unanswered is whether this "unveiling" will be even more embarassing than the Tesla robot mime one.
TechCrunch reports that Waymo is committing a new round of funding of "up to $5B" over the next few years. This is not truly news though since it is just consistent with their recent annual investments.
NY Times reports on how Masayoshi Son, the billionaire founder of SoftBank, is trying to get automotive makers around the world to join forces to develop autonomous driving.
Washington Post reports on how Tesla claims of 'self-driving' cars is now being called, by some, "fraud". An excellent article that explains the legal jeopardy that Tesla has been placed into by its CEO.
Inside EVs reports that the Tesla robotaxi reveal has been delayed by a couple of months. Importantly, they also cast doubts on Tesla being able to create a robotaxi in the first place.
Bloomberg reports that for now the Tesla robotaxi "introduction" has been delayed until October. Supposedly Tesla needs more time to "build additional vehicle prototypes", though of course they likely don't have any prototypes now, nor will they in October.
Bloomberg opinion piece on how Tesla meeting Q2 sales projections hid a great deal of underlying bad financial news. And investors, at least some, are still falsely expecting Elon to magically pull a robotaxi rabbit out of a hat.
The San Francisco County Transportation Authority provides a final report for their Treasure Island autonomous shuttle test. While safe because the shuttle ran so slowly, the autonomous shuttle technology was found to be unreliable . The existing human driven 25-Treasure Island bus provides much more useful service and should be enhanced.
SF Examiner reports that the CPUC approved the previously agreed to $112,500 fine for Cruise for withholding information. This paltry fine will of course not affect the behavior of Cruise since it is currently burning a billion dollars a year.
