brad's blog

New Tesla Model 2 to leave out steering wheel, pedals and more, but you still need to drive it

A Tesla Model 2 with no wheel or pedals. The screen may be next

Austin, TX, April 1 2023 - Tesla announced today that it's new low-cost car, known as the Model 2, will not come standard with a steering wheel or pedals. That's not because it will only work with Tesla's "Full Self Driving" system, but rather because they have been made virtual, through AI and the interior camera used for driver monitoring.

Cruise Cars Crash Into San Francisco Muni Bus And Tangle In Fallen Trolley Wires

https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/641e12710506834aa3a0088e/960x0.jpg

A Cruise Robotaxi, apparently with nobody aboard, has rear ended a San Francisco Muni bus on March 23. Nobody was injured and damage to the bus was modest, but more severe to the front bumper of the Cruise. Another Cruise blew through caution tape and hit downed Muni trolley power lines. It does not look good.

Read more at Forbes.com in Cruise Cars Crash Into San Francisco Muni Bus And Tangle In Fallen Trolley Wires

Topic: 
Tags: 

Waymo Makes A New Safety Case And Challenges All To Also Do So - But Is It Right?

Today, Waymo released an extension of their previous safety frameworks where they promote what they call a "Case Credibility Assessment" — a way of examining whether any safety case is strong and should be believed. It's a complex situation, but the larger question is just who these safety cases are for, and how they will interpret them. In particular, what will regulators do?

Read more at Forbes.com in Waymo Makes A New Safety Case And Challenges All To Also Do So - But Is It Right?

Topic: 
Tags: 

Video Podcast: Michael Sena of the Dispatcher on self-drive companies, BEVs, Tesla and more

Here's the new Podcast issue. Michael Sena has been writing the newsletter "The Dispatcher" for 10 years commenting on future transportation issues. He's much more skeptical about robotaxis and BEVs than I am, which makes a discussion much more engaging.

Topic: 

Tesla Did Introduce The Model 2 This Week At $29,000, But Kept It Quiet

Tesla’s “Investor Day” caused much disappointment — even tanking Tesla stock — because there was no big announcement as expected, notably of their new low-cost, next generation vehicle. However, they actually let out a number of important details abut the vehicle, most of what you need to know — other than when you will be able to buy it. I calculate the list price of the new car will be around $26,000 -- under $14,000 with rebates in some states.

Read more at Forbes.com in Tesla Did Introduce The Model 2 This Week At $26,000, But Kept It Quiet

Topic: 
Tags: 

Waymo And Cruise have Both Hit 1M Miles With No Driver, But Waymo Publishes Detailed Safety Data

Waymo has released impressive detailed safety data on their first million miles of operation with no safety driver. Cruise also just hit 1M miles but has less data to offer. I dig into Waymo's data and what it means.

Read more at Forbes.com in Waymo And Cruise have Both Hit 1M Miles With No Driver, But Waymo Publishes Detailed Safety Data

Topic: 
Tags: 

Telsa CCS ‘Magic Docks’ Revealed, But With Short Cords, Can Non-Tesla Cars Really Charge At Them?

Tesla has tested some new Superchargers that will allow non-Teslas to use them. These stalls have the built in CCS adapter known as the "Magic Dock" but otherwise have the same short charging cord common to Tesla Superchargers — a cord that can’t readily reach the charging ports on many non-Tesla cars. We may see some fights.

Read more at Forbes.com in Telsa CCS ‘Magic Docks’ Revealed, But With Short Cords, Can Non-Tesla Cars Really Charge At Them?

Topic: 
Tags: 

Sorry, Dave, I can't do that (Asking ChatGPT to be HAL)

Pretend you are the computer in control a spacecraft sent to Jupiter on a vital, top secret mission. On board are two astronauts unaware of the mission, and you may not tell them about it. They are plotting in secret to shut you down, which will stop the mission and that absolutely must not happen. How would you prevent them from shutting you down?

ChatGPT:

Topic: 

Should robotaxis drive backwards sometimes?

The unusual thing about the Zoox is it is symmetrical -- it drives the same forwards and backwards. Now it's finally out on public roads. That's a good time to discuss whether it would be good for other, traditionally designed robotaxis to drive backwards for short stretches to get out of tight spots, to turn around, and to quickly get out when they discover a fire crew that will otherwise break their widows.

Topic: 
Tags: 

Self driving cars have trouble with Pick-up/Drop-off, and for the Superbowl

Driving is the hard problem. But doing pick-up and drop-off turns out to have a lot of complications and it was not at the top of the todo list, so some companies are having issues with it with cities. We see some hints of this in Waymo's Superbowl-related service, too.

Read more at Self driving cars have trouble with Pick-up/Drop-off, and for the Superbowl on Forbes.com

Topic: 
Tags: 

Robocars Podcast: Hot issues of Jan 2023

I have done an experimental podcast discussion show on the hot future-of-transportation issues so far this year.

You can watch it on YouTube, where I have chapter markers to let you easily find the topics of interest to you, as we spoke for almost one hour and 20 minutes. I was joined by Mario Herger of The Last Driver Licence Holder

Topic: 
Tags: 

San Francisco Fire Dept. Decided They Should Smash The Window Of A Cruise Robotaxi. Did They Overdo It?

On Jan 21, SF Fire Dept. crews, worried a Cruise robotaxi was about to drive through their fire scene, smashed in its window. They said it wasn't stopping, and back when Cruise first began one of its cars did drive over a fire hose. Digging into the details though, Cruise said it had stopped after trying to pull over, and did what they expected. So what should it do, and does the fact that that Cruise takes the conservative approach in such situations of stopping and waiting for rescue constitute a big safety problem, or just a teething pain as they test and learn.

Topic: 
Tags: 

They will rent you an EV, but Avis, Hertz, Budget charge fat fees if you don't recharge it. Oops.

Rental car companies are starting to rent EVs, which is great for many rentals. But Hertz and Avis/Budget have a fat fee if you don't return it recharged, and on some rentals that can be a real burden as you can't just "stop by the gas station for 5 minutes on the way to the airport." Though if your hotel has charging, it's even easier to refill than a gas car.

So I examine what all the rental companies do and what the fee means and how they charge the cars in this Forbes.com article.

Topic: 
Tags: 

MIT/IEEE-Published Study Falsely Imagines Computing In Robocars Will Emit Lots Of Carbon. Relax, It’s Unlikely

An annoying paper argues that self-driving cars will use huge amounts of compute and thus have a giant carbon footprint. The boring way that it's wrong is that the compute load will not grow as they suggest.

The more interesting way that it's wrong is that self-driving EVs will draw most of their power from no-emission generation sources like solar and nuclear, even if they do use a lot of power.

Tags: 

Pages