Tesla #Robotaxi update: "Musk claims to be 'a month ahead of schedule' even though #Tesla started testing its service without safety drivers about 2 weeks before the planned start of the service. That’s ridiculous.
"It’s not victory to have 'no incidents' after a few days of testing. You need to have no incidents over months of testing and hundreds of thousands of miles before launching."
"Sometimes products launch when they're ready and sometimes products launch because someone just wants to polut it out." Forbes calls the imminent #Tesla #robotaxi launch in Austin "a disaster waiting to happen." https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6cvat2fBx48
More #Tesla #robotaxi troubles: "Fortune reports that Tesla held initial meetings with both state and city agencies in #Austin a few weeks ago. However, according to that report, officials with Austin’s transportation department, the city's emergency first responders, and federal regulators say that Tesla has failed to deliver crucial information regarding the service, which is supposed to go live in just a few days." https://mashable.com/article/tesla-robotaxi-austin-texas-unprepared-week-before-launch
Heh. #Tesla is hiring lots of remote operators to monitor and control is "self-driving" #robotaxi service. https://insideevs.com/news/760863/tesla-hiring-humans-to-control-robotaxis/
#Tesla screwed over its lessees to maintain the fiction that its #robotaxi was imminent. https://www.jalopnik.com/1860565/tesla-sells-off-lease-cars-robotaxis/
Others have long had doubts. When #Tesla in 2019 announced it was prohibiting lease purchases because of its #robotaxi plans, Evercore ISI analysts reacted in a research note: "uhmmm, what??" The announcement "is an indication that Tesla believes their ride-hailing network is going to be a viable business in three years," the analysts added. "Put us in the extremely skeptical camp."
Some #investors have referenced the alleged inventory of leased vehicles as a promising strategy. As recently as October – ahead of a Hollywood event where #Tesla displayed a concept "Cybercab" #robotaxi – Ark Investment Management, long bullish on Tesla stock, said the off-lease inventory could help quickly ramp-up an #autonomous ride-hailing service.
“While the makers of these vehicles contend that a machine programmed to follow traffic laws is safer than an erratic human driver, the crash research is less conclusive.”
Refreshing to see a journalist not simply echo the #robotaxi marketing hype!
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/zoox-ebike-crash-robotaxi-safety-20313079.php
Tesla, ya basic!
USPTO refuses Tesla Robotaxi trademark as “merely descriptive”
Elon Musk claims Tesla will deploy a fleet of self driving taxis in June. Tesla has said they'll make a ride hailing up and were running with "robotaxi" and "cybercab" branding throughout their talk about this new vehicle and service.
But turns out they got denied the key trademarks.... Which imo is the least of their worries that may delay launch.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/hybrid-electric/a64555334/tesla-class-action-lawsuit/
Uh-Oh, a Class-Action Lawsuit Claims Tesla Is Speeding Up Odometers to Avoid Warranties
Elon Musk reportedly shut down an internal analysis from Tesla executives that showed the company’s Robotaxi plans would lose money. Read more at @electrek.co. #ElonMusk #Tesla #Robotaxi #EV #Tech #Technology https://flip.it/Zed9en
Hackaday Links: April 13, 2025 - It’s been a while since we’ve dunked on an autonomous taxi foul-up, mainly because... - https://hackaday.com/2025/04/13/hackaday-links-april-13-2025/ #polyethyleneterephthalate #logicalfallacies #hackadaycolumns #theengineerguy #hackadaylinks #amateurradio #autonomous #sodabottle #robotaxi #startrek #driving #slider #dragon #spacex #fram2 #logic #spock #waymo #x-ray #pet
Interesting to note that Waymo apparently uses a modified Jaguar I-Pace which had reliability problems and will be discontinued by Jaguar in 2025.[1, 2]
Also Waymo "says it may use videos of passengers captured by in-vehicle cameras to sell ads and train its AI models"
https://gizmodo.com/waymo-considering-using-in-vehicle-cameras-to-sell-ads-and-train-its-ai-2000586126
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_I-Pace
2. https://www.carscoops.com/2025/02/once-the-sexiest-ev-the-jaguar-i-pace-is-now-resigned-to-the-scrapyard/
#robotaxi #reliability #safety #privacy
Just wondering if autonomous taxis are cleared to operate in #Tokyo [1] whether it leads to the "Total Recall" Johnny Cab [2] or the robotic police car in Ray Bradbury's "The Pedestrian" [3] and whether the Japanese public would be less hesitant to accept them than a human-driven Uber ride [4].
1. https://www.theverge.com/news/645777/waymo-japan-autonomous-test-robotaxi-international
2. https://totalrecall.fandom.com/wiki/Johnny_Cab
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pedestrian
4. https://www.shareable.net/tokyos-taxi-industry-joined-forces-to-resist-uber/
#robotaxi
