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 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 reports on how once again Waymo vehicles are incompetent at driving and cause complete traffic chaos.
TechCrunch reports that the marriage between Waymo and Uber was really just one of temporary convenience.
New York Times reports on how Waymo robotaxis won't be on the streets of some major cities, including New York, within the foreseeable future. Turns out there are lots of issues.
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.
SF Standard reports on yet more problems that Waymos are causing in San Francisco. Now they are clogging up residential parking garages as well.
StreetsBlog USA covers a report that confirms that Waymos spend half their time empty, as in "zero occupancy vehicles", as in the absolute worst from a congestion and energy point of view.
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.
SF Chronicle reports that there is a new use case for robotaxis: burglary! No driver to identify the perpetrator. Truly brilliant!
NY Times writes an unfortunate article that perpetuates the Waymo marketing "crip-washing" that robotaxis are important for people who are visually impaired.
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 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 provides a report on how half the Waymo miles are void of passengers, simply increasing congestion.
SF Chronicle reports on some serious problems with Waymo customer service.
SF Chronicle conducted a poll and found that only 42% consider the robotaxis to be a "good thing". Meanwhile, Brad Templeton does a really weird and inappropriate comparison to acceptance of elevators.
