Tesla’s ‘Robotaxi’ service is no Waymo - Fast Company

Calling it what it is and still being too easy on Tesla.

Another breaking news - Leon is no Brad Pitt.

it's multiple failed attempts to copy Waymo

here's all you need to know: **Me:** “Are you here just to monitor for safety?” **Guy sitting in the driver’s seat of the Tesla Model Y I’m riding in:** “I can’t specify.”

I would have never heiled the Tesla in the first place but that should have been the que to cancel the ride.

No shit, said everyone ever with common sense.

Well duh. A roomba brain strapped to a Ford Pinto would be safer.

Completely brainless to talk of these two anything near equal

The media carries so much water for Elon and Tesla. Look how often they use the phrase "self-driving Tesla" or "Tesla's self-driving cars", even though there is no such thing as a self-driving Tesla. Even when reporting on Tesla's failures and faults they always position Tesla as the protagonist with challenges to overcome rather than a fraudulent company that has no intention to fix the problems it has created.

Waymo is way mo advanced.

>I would have never heiled the Tesla… A typo, I’m sure, but in this case remarkably appropriate.

Or a Dodge Omni.

They gave him a complete pass on calling the guy who rescued those kids in the cave a pedo. That was the turning point for me, before that, I 100% bought the grift. If there were any chance I could fight him bare-knuckle, I'd be all for it He's a sissy-ass wanna-be tough guy while in reality he's none of that

No, not a typo

[removed]

LOL, I forgot about that. Poor Elmo Sissy confirmed!

I just don't see it working at scale... the demand just isn't there. The idea of there being enough people wanting a taxi service in the middle of the night ("while the owner is sleeping") can't be that high. On top of that, Musk has alienated a huge chunk of potential customers with his nonsense. Then there are the anti-EV people. Then the people who don't trust AI/robots/etc. I could see some of it working in some cities.

Just like Optimus is multiple attempts to copy Boston Dynamic, and failing. Yet some characterize Optimus as C-3PO about to be released next month

I couldn't agree more. This is why the average person associates self driving cars with Tesla and will never read an article like this.

Nah I'm sure everyone would love to wake up to their car in the morning stained with fast food grease, blood, and semen for a cool $8 while it competed with other sleeping tesla owners.

This article is super depressing. It comes so close to addressing the elephant in the room - but just doesn't quite get there. No, Harry, the car is not driving itself. You are in a rideshare vehicle with a required, legal driver exactly like an Uber or Lyft. Any Uber or Lyft driver with a Tesla could do the same thing. Just like a Ford driver with BlueCruise or a Mercedes driver with their (better) driver assistance. The touchscreen, the app and the Tesla "robotaxi" branding are just extra layers of fraud on an existing product. um, I mean corporate puffery.

I was reading an article about Tesla semis in a newspaper, and how lenient the author was with Tesla's shortcoming was quite frustrating.  Even though Tesla is far behind promises and Volvo when it comes to electric trucks. Take the gloves off at some point dammit.

Even just look at the other articles in this sub. > Tesla investigated over self-driving cars on wrong side of road > Tesla Self-Driving Technology Breaks Traffic Laws. Can the Feds Stop It? Both headlines ostensibly critical, but without pointing out that, excuse me, Tesla does not make any self-driving cars or have any self-driving technology. So often they feel this impulse to "both sides" everything, and I suspect they fear a lawsuit from Tesla for defamation or libel, but I wish the press understood that they're allowed to call "bulslhit". When Elon makes a ridiculous promise they just uncritically report it, while a responsible journalist would print "Elon Musk, who has promised to build a self-driving car 'next year' every single year since 2014, promises..."

There's a reason James Murdoch is on the board.

No shit, Sherlock.

They are allowed to call bullshit, but in most case they either don't want to take the risk to get sued by Musk or are owned by billionaires. So they don't. What I don't get is that the article I read was in a printed Swiss newspaper (in French), so neither applied, but the author still kept the kids' gloves.

The only way it works if it ends up quite a bit cheaper than manned taxis while being at least equally safe. But neither of these are even close to true for Teslas right now...

Years behind in delivery to market, technology that is just dangerous using cameras instead of lidar, it’s just Uber Richest man in the world

The car which is reportedly going to be a real robot-taxi (Tensor?) along with Lyft as a partner...has over 100 sensors. I wonder why they wasted so many? After all, if 2 or 3 cheap cameras could do the same or better job, why are they do stupid? Google also. They must be dumb. All those engineers are dumb. Only Tesla, where many of the engineers have quit, has it right! Anyone who believes this...is certainly Exhibit A for Dunning Kruger.

Of course there is demand. There are uber drivers with teslas now. They would be stupid to not pay for their cars to drive themselves then use the extra time to work another job.  The problem is that the tech doesn’t work, not that it isn’t in demand.

Except that people behave differently when there's a driver in the car.

That’s a solvable problem. Add a passenger camera and require a credit card on file. Ban the repeat offenders.

Don’t feel bad. With article titles like “The smartest man in any room anywhere,” (that’s a real title by the way) a lot of us bought it. His PR team crafted the legend and then let people fill in their own gaps by being people. For example, an actual YouTube comment under a spaceX video I saw one time was someone who said there were rumors that Elon goes around at night completing or fixing equations left on whiteboards at SpaceX. Think about that for a sec. First, they just made it up obviously. Second, it’s clearly base on their own perception of what a genius must be based on movies they’ve seen and other popular media. Most importantly though, them putting it out there just shows how desperately people want to believe in this Tony Stark like character that is doing all these impressive things all by themselves. We love myths and legends, but in the end the reality is that he is just some incel grifter with average intelligence and a pretty serious poly-substance abuse issue.

Yep, like there are just unsolved equations randomly placed around SpaceX's HQ Good Elmo Hunting

Tesla's are getting well behind. Aside from Volvo, look at Windrose ...or Janus.

You can even add Renault Trucks to the list. Freight companies are unlikely to buy Tesla's vapoware when "legacy" truck makers are delivering.

Regardless of whether they are safer or not, just imagine how nasty the vehicle would get at the end of a Saturday night downtown without a driver monitoring things.

Yeah. Using your personal car as a robo-taxi while you sleep is a dumb idea on many levels - but having automated cars not have barf inside is a solved problem. Every waymo I've ridden has been clean. Rideshare cars need regular service (and charging) regardless of whether there is a driver. How often do you find puke or used condoms in an elevator? That's a rhetorical question, btw.

Then I stand both corrected and amused. Well played! Subtle and spot on.

You forgot to mention puke and liability for any accidents!

Tried taking one down 24th Street in S.F. car drove like Elon - driving into blind corners to get around a bus. Then tried to back into a bus stop just as a Muni was pulling. Let’s just say a lot of honking then a human driver intervention.

It’s amazing what having $500B can do for somebody. Almost like you can destroy anybody’s career and sue them if you don’t like what they report