Are robotaxis the future? Or instead, the past?
Are robotaxis the future? Or instead, the past?
Waymo is fortunate to have a better reputation than the rest, but their incident rate is still not acceptable…
SF Examiner reports that Waymo continues to be incredible when it comes to working with cities and revealing even basic data, like the number of vehicles they operate in a city.
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??
Gizmodo reports on how Waymo robotaxis received 589 tickets in 2024 for a total of $65,000. Unfortunately this goes no where near covering the traffic havoc that the vehicles cause.
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.
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.
The Register reports on key remarks from Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Dara states that robotaxis are inherently expensive and there is not a path forward for successfully commercializing them.
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.
San Francisco Examiner reports on how Waymo more than double the times in 2024 where it had paid lobbyists meet with city government officials. Biggest effort is trying to get permission to serve San Francisco Airport, which would be quite lucative for Waymo.
San Francisco Chronicle reports on how robotaxis are taking up valuable property that was was intended for housing.
San Francisco Chronicle reports on how a person and a dog were killed and multiple cars were destroyed including a Waymo. This happened even though robotaxis are widely available in San Francisco. This dramatically shows that robotaxis are not the answer for safety. Instead, better street design is.
SF Examiner reports that the state court has rejected a lawsuit from December 2023 by the City of San Francisco. The lawsuit was attempting to overturn the California PUC's decision from October of 2023 to allow Waymo (and Cruise) to provide citywide robotaxi service.
Bloomberg publishes one of the best written articles on the hype of the robotaxi business, and its inevitable fall. It shows how all of the robotaxi companies (including Waymo, but especially Tesla) have been dependent on hype to make the false claim that robotaxis have a near-term financially robust future. Yet they are still shockingly dependent on support by a large number of actual humans. And now, not only do robotaxis appear to be post peak bubble, generative AI companies will surely be following the same trajectory.
Mission Local reports on how Waymos responded incredibly quickly to Mayor Lurie's inauguration party by completely gumming up the streets.
In Bloomberg, David Zipper interviews the outgoing director of the SFMTA, Jeffrey Tumlin, on the impact of robotaxis.
Los Angeles Times reports that once again a Waymo got stuck driving around in a loop. It appears that they have completely failed to fix this reoccurring issue.
