KayLeadfoot

I just can't see how Tesla self-driving taxis will be safe for unsupervised use any time soon.

Tesla's self-driving tech just sucks so hard. Doesn't see the school bus stop sign. Doesn't see the plainly-visible kid-sized-dummy (until the very last second). Doesn't brake or swerve before impact.

I can't say I would want to ride in a Tesla autonomous taxi. It's unclear why regulators are even allowing this to be used on public roadways.

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.

I can't imagine a company I would trust less to design autonomous taxis.

Like the lady says, "I love New Orleans."

But seriously... The Big Easy is about as friendly a crowd as you can expect. They don't boo anybody. If you're pissing off New Orleans, you need a long hard look in the mirror and probably to take some corrective action.

It's sort of amazing to see the visceral, negative reaction that just crowds of randos have to seeing one specific model of ugly truck.

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.

The tax credit in the USA would end December 31st, 2025. Here’s what that means.

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 goes into effect as written.

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.

I don't think this tech is ready to power an autonomous taxi service, which is apparently the plan for June.

In case you were worried about the roads being too safe, you can rest easily knowing that Teslas will be rolling out with unsupervised "Full Self Driving" in a couple days.

It doesn't seem to be going great, even in supervised mode. This one couldn't safely drive down a simple, perfectly straight road in broad daylight :( Veered off the road for no good reason. Glad nobody got badly hurt.

We analyze the onboard camera footage, and try to figure out what went wrong. Turns out, a lot. We also talk through how camera-only autonomous cars work, Tesla's upcoming autonomous taxi rollout, and how AI hallucinations figure into everything.

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.