Tesla’s reveal of a robotaxi designed as a low-slung, two-seater, sporty coupe - quite the opposite of a typical taxi with room for several passengers and luggage - flummoxed investors and analysts.
But in true Musk style, he skipped over expectations of how a two-seater robotaxi would serve the needs of families headed to a restaurant or to the airport, or if he expected these to appeal only to a niche clientele.
Investors jeered the design and the lack of financial detail, with Tesla stocks tumbling 9% on Wall Street on Friday.
“When you think of a cab, you think of something that’s going to carry more than two people,” said Jonathan Elfalan, vehicle testing director for the automotive website Edmunds.com. “Making this a two-seat-only car is very perplexing.”
Is the “safer the human drivers” part also an anecdote? I’d like to see the evidence. As far as I know, that’s not actually public information. I’d like to know if it includes things like impeding emergency vehicles, or the situation in one of the articles above where the taxi kept going toward the fire hoses while the fire department was trying to put out a fire.
It’s part anecdote, in that I personally feel safer when I see a waymo coming than a human driver; but they also are required to report to government organizations as part of their operating agreement with the county/state. From my understanding, waymo’s collisions-per-mile are a fraction of human drivers. Here’s some random article I found if it helps https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradtempleton/2024/09/05/waymos-new-safety-data-is-impressive-and-teaches-a-lesson/. But I’m really just reporting my experience here from the ground.
As a counterexample, Cruise was recently suspended by SF and fined by NHTSA for trying to avoid reporting their traffic incidents.
As for the rest, you’ve got a handful of isolated incidents you’re just-asking-questions about when there are incidents every single day of human drivers doing worse, with provable loss of life.
If you don’t think the tech is up to snuff, take it up with NHTSA who clearly disagrees.
But all of this is a tangent - none of this negates the fact that self driving exists and I can hop in one just as quick as I can get an uber.
We’ll have to keep waiting for the space colonies I guess.