KayLeadfoot

So, the Tesla Robotaxi rollout is going great and they are following all applicable local laws to autonomously drive safely. /s

Come for the video of a Tesla Robotaxi driving double the speed limit and hitting speed bumps like they are Mario Kart ramps...

... But stay for the conversation about social media silos and corporate disinformation campaigns!

I saw the Tesla Robotaxi:

• Drive into oncoming traffic, getting honked at in the process.
• Signal a turn and then go straight at a stop sign with turn signal on.
• Park in a fire lane to drop off the passenger.

And that was in a single 22 minute ride. Not great performance at all.

We’re getting the first videos of “select guests” getting access to Tesla’s Robotaxi service in Austin, and the level of polish leaves something to be desired.

For instance, one gaggle of Tesla influencers was dropped off directly in an intersection, leading to these wooly screenshots.

We’re getting the first videos of “select guests” getting access to Tesla’s Robotaxi service in Austin, and the level of polish leaves something to be desired.

For instance, one gaggle of Tesla influencers was dropped off directly in an intersection, leading to these wooly screenshots.

I have no confidence that Tesla will fix this before the planned Robo-Taxi rollout in Austin in 2 weeks.

After all, they haven't fixed it in the last 9 years that self-driving Teslas have been on the road.

It's not hard to find videos of self-driving Teslas wilding in bus lanes. Check the videos out, then consider:

"There was an interesting side-note in Tesla’s last earnings call, where they explained the main challenge of releasing Full-Self Driving (supervised!) in China was a quirk of Chinese roads: the bus-only lanes.

Well, jeez, we have bus-only lanes here in Chicago, too. Like many other American metropolises… including Austin TX, where Tesla plans to rollout unsupervised autonomous vehicles in a matter of weeks..."

It's one of those regional differences to driving that make a generalizable self-driving platform an exceedingly tough technical nut to crack... unless you're willing to just plain ignore the local rules.

TL;DR: EV cars & SUVs will face an average 16% effective price increase, with the lowest cost model up more than 28%, if the law passes the Senate and goes into effect as written.

It's hard to imagine any way this doesn't throw a huge wrench into the adoption of sustainable car technology for the USA.

Only about 8% of new cars sold last year in the USA were electric, compared to 13% for the EU or 25% for China. Seems like exactly the wrong moment to cut tax incentives for the tech.

A 2025 Tesla Model 3 in Full-Self Driving mode drives off of a rural road, clips a tree, loses a tire, flips over, and comes to rest on its roof. Luckily, the driver is alive and well, able to post about it on social media.

I just don't see how this technology could possibly be ready to power an autonomous taxi service by the end of next week.

Tesla owners are modifying their cars to be escapable if the car catches fire, because the doors stop working like normal and you need to rely on well-hidden mechanical overrides.

Which... feels pretty dangerous, like that's the worst possible time for the doors to stop working like normal.

We wondered what Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai meant when he said on their earnings call last Thursday that for Waymos, “there is future optionality for personal ownership.”

Well, we only had to wait a minute to find out. Waymo announced today that they’re developing autonomous technology with a little automotive manufacturer you may have heard of: Toyota.

Tucked into the announcement, Waymo also plans to release a generalizable autonomous driving system for any given vehicle. Read our full analysis!

A Tesla influencer randomly caught his odometer double-counting mileage on video. Wild.