Brad Ideas

Robocars & More

How do all the robotaxi contenders compare with Waymo the leader? See it all in one graphic

Tesla has said their Oct 10 "We Robot" day will be one for the history books. But they are very far from having a working robotaxi you can bet your life on. So just what can they show off to live up to the hype? I've collected various speculations on what they might show off at Warner Brothers, in hopes of not disappointing.

Read it at Forbes.com in Since Tesla has no Robotaxi, just what will they show on Robotaxi day?

The electric car revolution is well underway, but soon we ll also see the rise of the electric RV. There's a lot you can do to make trailers better

Waymo might seek a backup if their planned Zeekr receives 100% tariffs from the White House, but probably not the Ioniq 5

Nuro was going to make a large fleet of custom delivery robots. Now it will licence its self-driving software stack to vehicles of all types, including passenger cars

The lastest Waymo safety data throws down a gauntlet in front of other companies to publish similar data, and helps regulators measure risk.

I made this graphic because I find the information collected in it striking. How did Trump get control of the GOP when every single former VP or Presidential nominee living or recently deceased (except Palin) opposes him?

The oldest rail line in the western U.S. has gone electric, but data released suggest the old one used more fuel than giving each rider a Hummer. How can that be solved?

A short term partnership will help both companies learn. But the question of a long-term partnership is much more complex.

Waymo says it's new 6th generation driver has significantly reduced cost. A robotaxi can end up cheaper than a regular car. Here's a list what it doesn't need.

To my various Republican and conservative friends, it's time to talk about Donald Trump. In particular it's time for hard thinking on whether, for the sake of the GOP and conservatism, it's past time to cut him loose. Not for any of the arguments made by your leftie friends, but because it's the right thing for you. It's also time to leave the sinking ship.

Tesla doesn't have robotaxi software yet, and it's done almost nothing on robotaxi logistics. But it might be able to launch early with a cheaper, greener Uber style ride.

In the young Olympic event of "speed climbing," Sam Watson (USA) set two new world records, breaking his own previous world record. For that, he got the Bronze medal. The reason he did relates to some concepts I have been mulling over about what makes a good spectator event. The Olympics are the rare time when a whole bunch of sports that are generally relatively obscure become big-audience, big-advertising events. Spectator sports are sports as entertainment, but they are also still athletic.

Making a working self-driving car is hard, but there's a ton more to do to open a robotaxi service area. Here's an outline of the surprisingly long list of things.

A few days ago, I wrote about Olympics Streaming and the challenge of quickly navigating around streaming/downloaded sports programs with typical streaming or cloud DVR services.

I tend to make heavy use of "jump" buttons which skip forward or back amounts like 10, 15, 30 or 120 seconds. With a local disk DVR (and some very good streaming ones) this is done with super fast response time and a live preview, so it's easy to move around a program to what you want.

I cut the TV cord many years ago, and watch everything streaming or downloaded. When it comes to sports, though, particularly the Olympics, streaming and Cloud DVR don't remotely cut it, and so I record the over-the-air broadcast to a local disk using open source DVR software, and watch from my local disk, sometimes delayed just a few minutes to an hour from "live."

Robotaxis may not look like old-school cars. What will be their key innovative features, and what is Tesla likely to show in their October concept reveal?

Canceling the Origin is a sad moment for Cruise, but it's the right decision on their path to rebirth. Get the software right, then do the hardware.

Some plan fleets of robotaxis. Others, like Tesla may expect private owners to hire out their cars into networks, like Ubers they don't have to drive. Which is best?