Waymo now testing on LA Freeways
Teslas now drive themselves out of their production factory, Increasing cases of AV vandalism and what to do about it, How is Uber not totally screwed by Waymo? (re-visited)
Top Stories of the Week
Waymo takes its first steps toward offering freeway rides in LA by granting access to employees (link). I read this announcement a little too quickly and thought Waymo was offering freeway rides to ALL users but alas, it’s just employees for now. This mirrors what the company has done in Phoenix and SF, but that was 5 months ago and freeway access still hasn’t been granted to regular users. So let’s not get too excited just yet.
As Waymo highlights, this could cut certain trip lengths in half but I wonder if the slow rollout has less to do with the technology side of things, and more with taking a cautious approach. Higher speeds mean more severe injuries in the event of an accident and I think Waymo wants to avoid negative headlines around people dying in their cars (whether at fault or not).
Did Elon Musk’s ‘Salute’ Cripple The Tesla Robotaxi? (link). Brad brings up a few great points in this article. The first is that most rideshare demand is from urban city dwellers who tend to lean left while Musk is obviously aligning himself with the right. But in my opinion, a great product is a lot more important than the CEO’s personal and political beliefs and customers will follow accordingly.
The big caveat though here is that Tesla’s robotaxi is anything but full self driving and who knows how far away it is from actually launching.
Waymo vs Uber (link). In my latest analysis post, I tackled the question “How is Uber not totally screwed by Waymo?” in detail. Give it a read if you haven’t done so already.
Cool Rides
Not an awful view (link).
The Future is Here...Recently, I had the opportunity to ride in a Waymo driverless taxi, at San Francisco (link).
Went on my first Waymo ride this weekend! Futuristic experience! Super smooth! (link).
AVs and/or Humans behaving badly
There’s also a video here.
Tagged/Spray Painted Waymo (link). Watch the video of the perps doing this - pretty bold to do this with a passenger in the car and at a stoplight.
Unfortunately vandalism is going to be a real issue that Waymo will need to deal with. My best guess is that these are just young people/hooligans that find it funny to destroy property. But there’s also a cohort of folks in the ‘Luddite’ camp that may want to vandalize Waymos because they feel like autonomous vehicles are taking jobs (totally true) from hardworking humans. I’m honestly not sure what the best way to handle this will be but would love to hear your ideas in the comments.
Other Stuff
Teslas now drive themselves from the factory to their designated loading dock lanes (link). This is neat but not exactly groundbreaking since it’s a short fixed route with no opposing traffic.
The Waymo Vandalism Incident: A Wake-Up Call For The AV Industry (link).
Uber’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, interviewed at Davos. He estimates we’re no more than 15-20 years away from autonomy taking over from human drivers (link). Seems like a reasonable timeline to me.
Kodiak has completed its first driverless truck deliveries to Atlas Energy (link).
Waymo, I have a new product idea for you...Narrated city tours in San Francisco (link). Sounds like a great idea—hope they make it happen!
China’s WeRide Wants to Build Global Robotaxi Empire (link, no paywall).
Why Autonomous Vehicles Could Be in for a Breakout Year (link, no paywall).
Waymo is working on a tipping feature—but there’s a catch (link).
Someone is paying for YouTube ads to advertise their promo code…(link). As the king of referrals, I doubt there is a good ROI from this. Much better to do a video review and put your link in the comments :)
My article on Waymo’s Master Plan was recently posted on Reddit and raised some good debate there.
Until next week.
-Harry
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