Autonomous Cars

When two people die in very similar crashes years apart, the reason seems obvious. Autopilot, Tesla’s driver assist system, can’t recognize trucks crossing the road. They knew it couldn’t, and they didn’t fix it. And now we have testimony from their engineers admitting this.

The California Public Utilities Commission will hold a hearing at 11AM PT on whether robotaxi companies like Cruise and Waymo will be allowed to charge for their rides and operate their service 24/7. Some San Francisco officials are urging the panel to vote no, citing blocked roads and traffic caused by robotaxis.

The companies are forming a joint venture that will provide Toyota-branded EVs to the autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai. The Level 4 vehicles can operate without a human at the wheel and will join the PonyPilot+ robotaxi network offered in China.

Teslas, like most cars, aren’t supposed to work without someone in the front seat. But as YouTuber AI Addict proves, all you need is a stuffed animal, or even a dang balloon, to trick the Full Self-Driving system into thinking there’s someone behind the wheel. (Full disclosure: these guys did these tests at the behest of Dan O’Dowd, a rich software developer who’s made it his life’s mission to debunk Elon Musk’s automated driving claims.)

Car critics in San Francisco are placing orange traffic cones on the hoods of Waymo and Cruise robotaxis in protest of an upcoming vote to allow the autonomous vehicles to operate at all hours. The cones cause the vehicles to stall in the middle of the road — which is a weird thing to do if janky robot cars blocking emergency vehicles is something you want to avoid.

Well that’s a terrible headline! An autonomous Waymo vehicle struck and killed a small dog in San Francisco last month, according to an incident report spotted by TechCrunch. Waymo says the accident was unavoidable, and of course over a million pets are mowed down by human drivers every year. Still, this incident will be an interesting test of my theory about AVs, which is that while we have an extremely high tolerance for death caused by human drivers, we have an extremely low tolerance for robot-caused deaths. My guess is that extends to furry friends too.

Jeep owner Stellantis is working on a system that adds autonomy to its iconic SUV — and we’re not talking about highway driving... this is for 4x4 adventures.

The British automaker issued a recall for 6,400 electric I-PACE vehicles due to fire risks from an over-heated battery. Included in that recall is an undisclosed number of driverless Waymo vehicles. A spokesperson for the company said it was working with Jaguar on a software update that should fix the issue.

The latest “San Francisco residents hate all these robotaxis” dispatch just dropped, and it’s starting to seem that the complaints largely stem from our collective wish that autonomous vehicles would bend the everyday traffic rules that we, as humans, do everyday. Drive a little faster than you’re supposed to. Barrel ahead through thick fog and low visibility. Rolling stops. Double and triple parking. Maybe if the robot cars weren’t such fussy rule-followers we would like them more. Just saying.

The autonomous vehicle boom is fizzling. According to a recent report from F-Prime Capital, AV investments have “significantly slowed” in 2022, declining nearly 60 percent as compared to the previous year. That reflects an overall decline in robotics investment — $12 billion in 2022, down from $18 billion in 2021 — but it also speaks to the current reality facing many AV operators right now. They’re laying people off, struggling with regulators and a skeptical public, or shutting down altogether. In short, it’s tough out there for a robot car.

According to Bloomberg, the city of San Jose just approved a personal rapid transit (PRT) system in which pod-sized autonomous vehicles would travel on their own dedicated road back-and-forth between the airport and a nearby rail connection. It’s an incredibly dumb idea and a repudiation of proven high-capacity transportation systems like buses and trains. Nobody asked for this, and yet...

Sure, human drivers do this too. But robotaxis are supposed to be better than humans, not perpetuate our worst behaviors. Wired got dashcam footage from eight incidents of autonomous vehicles from Waymo and Cruise blocking buses in San Francisco. How much were riders delayed?

Five months after it pulled the plug on its autonomous vehicle division Argo.ai, Ford is continuing to divest itself from fully driverless technology. Today, the company filed a notice with the feds that basically retreats from its former position of wanting to deploy vast numbers of robot vehicles. The reason?