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 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.
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.
SF Chronicle does Waymo's bidding by publishing a fluff piece promoted by Waymo marketing. it is very inappropriate for Waymo to co-opt people with disabilities to try to get good publicity.
TechCrunch reports that two robots don't make a right. A food delivery robots, apparently crossing against a red light, was struck by a Waymo, even though the Waymo detected it. Apparently robot lives don't matter, as least to Waymos.
Washington Post provides perhaps the most important article on robotaxis in 2024. The reporter demonstrates how Waymo vehicles are not programmed to follow the law and cede right-of-way. Instead, they intentionally mimic human drivers, including bullying pedestrians and not allowing them to cross in crosswalks.
Mission Local reports on how Waymo is trying to inch towards providing service at SF Airport, which would provide a huge financial bonus to the company.
Washington Post reports how robotaxis not having a human driver leads to a large number of scary situations. Apparently their metric of crashes per mile driven is simply not adequate.
