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Tesla Robotaxi

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Re: Tesla Robotaxi

#62
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use it every day, but HN says it doesn’t work

A single person's evidence isn't helpful. People doing testing at scale of Tesla's solution (even the latest version), have found a few interventions happen an hour (or at least per day), especially on busy streets or in situations where weather isn't complimentary. It cannot be truly an autonomous robotaxi without VERY HIGH reliability. One intervention per hour is one too many.

Cruise had driverless robotaxis on the streets while they had 2.5 to 5 miles per intervention. [1]

I think FSD 12.5 is way beyond that --- I drove over 20 miles yesterday with zero interventions. Also, having ridden Waymo in San Francisco many times, I find that the FSD is actually slightly smoother and handles stuff like going around obstacles and blockages more naturally, although, as you are no doubt aware, there are still some rough edges in rare cases.

Once Tesla has reasonable remote human assistance infrastructure in place to help out with the extreme edge cases, and the software improves at the current rate, I don't see why they couldn't roll out a robotaxi service.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/03/technology/cruise-general...

Re: Tesla Robotaxi

#64
post #41

Here's an idea - take the Robocab car design, strip out all the FSD/autopilot stuff, put in a steering wheel and dash and sell it starting at the end of the year for ~$25k. It would sell +++

It would need a NACS port. Otherwise it would be a rather expensive brick.

Re: Tesla Robotaxi

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not good at all. doesn’t mention the mini-bus which is large enough to stand in. said fsd was “recalled” but what really happened was the driver monitoring software was updated.

As I understand it, a car "recall" is a regulated action in the US, and that manufacturers must issue recalls in certain circumstances and that they bring with them various requirements. How that recall actually takes place, and whether it's just an OTA update, is an implementation detail that doesn't matter as much. I realise that does go against the customer perception of what a product recall entails in general. T…

You can argue semantics, but it’s not an implementation detail that doesn’t matter, it’s fundamentally misrepresenting the truth.

A “recall” that does actually involve bringing the car in for service, a.k.a. recalling the car, is not accurately described as a “recall”. Words mean something.

The NHTSA is being idiotic (unsurprisingly) in not distinguishing between a software update and a recall, because legacy auto doesn’t have the software chops to successfully replicate Tesla’s approach.

News agencies that lean into that idiocy in a slanted attempt to denigrate Tesla are only denigrating themselves. It is not good coverage, and it is willfully misleading their own readers.

Call it a mandatory update if you want. But nothing was recalled, so insisting on calling it a recall is like insisting on calling cars “horseless carriages”.

Re: Tesla Robotaxi

#68
post #14

They haven’t even gotten self driving working with driver still at the wheel, how are they supposed to convince us that they can do fully autonomous?

I use it every day, but HN says it doesn’t work

It's an SAE Level 2 system, they haven't indicated that's ever changing on current cars. They're even calling it "Full Self-Driving (Supervised) (also referred to as Autosteer on City Streets)" now [1]

A lot of companies have Level 2 systems. That's still a far cry from full automation.

[1] https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/modely/en_us/GUID-2CB6080...

Re: Tesla Robotaxi

#69

Anybody know why the autonomous taxi isn't just a model 3? I don't see the point in a purpose built two seater with no steering wheel or pedals and I don't know why regulators would approve an autonomous car with no way to manually override it.

Barring all the issues, if you did build a huge fleet of autonomous taxis - smaller, lighter cars with less moving pieces would save you a lot of money. 2 seater - smaller car No wheels or stuff - saves money on the build and parts.

They are probably planning to reuse lots of parts from model 3 to save money

And people are creatures of habit and highly social so version 1 of robotaxis will 100% look like normal cars. Regardless of whatever benefits you can come up with on paper. Once it's normalized then you experiment.

Re: Tesla Robotaxi

#70
Overpromised and underdelivered, but Elon did make a strong case for a very positive autonomous-driving future. Unfortunately for Tesla, Waymo is at least 5 years closer to delivering that future.
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