Brad Ideas

Robocars & More

It took a while, but Waymo is now servicing its HQ and the place it was born. I worked there 13 years ago and have seen it grow up.

The more extreme Trump gets, the more the non-MAGA Republicans, whom I will call the "GOP," would like to be free of him. They always distrusted him, but their desire for power overwhelmed that distrust. The alternative to Trump was the Democrats. Opposition to Trump meant being pushed out of the Republican party like Liz Cheney. Now they live in fear. Only the GOP have the political power to remove Trump. 4 in the House. 4 in the Senate could pass a resolution, including a resolution declaring Trump an insurrectionist.

With Waymo up to 200,000/week, total rides are now well over a million a month. The robotaxi is here. But people mistake it for Uber because it looks like that today.

People want to run EV charging stations as a business, but could you sell gasoline for $4/gallon if almost everybody has a $1/gallon filling station at home?

Trump has joked about a third term, but we all know the 22nd amendment limits Presidents to 2 (or 2.5) terms, right? Fortunately, Trump is 78, and the odds of health getting in the way are significant, but it's also pretty probable he'll be up for it. And being who he is, want it. He may not be joking. But how could he do it?

We look at Musk's very specific words from the earnings call, and what they might translate to in Austin to make a service when the software's not yet ready

The new Trump administration has done a dizzying list of extreme actions, insane cabinet appointments, executive orders and much more. The Democrats have been largely powerless to stop them, and do not appear to have even been trying very hard. Christian "reconstructionist" Russel Vought, architect of both Project 2025 and hidden plans, is running OMB, and Some fear a coup is in progress, and while it's not certain, the fear can't be easily dismissed.

Tesla is "cheap and everywhere first, they hope for safe." Waymo is "Safe first, then expand and lower costs." MobilEye thinks there is a zig-zag through the middle

In order to compare the two, it's important to figure out just how to judge the quality of a self-driving system.

The claim of the vehicles driving around, carrying passengers with no driver behind the wheel by June borders on ridiculous. The numbers just don't back it up

It doesn't matter what Musk really meant with this salute. Robotaxis are exclusively a product for large urban areas, and that population largely didn't like it at all.

An EV charging station is nothing like a gas station. To get it right, station owners must understand the different business rules and avoid gasoline thinking.

The competition to win in self-driving saw setbacks in 2024, but things were still going strong at CES. Here's a summary of some transportation stories from CES

I made a video version of my 2024 countdown of self-driving stories...

It was a year of tumult, with success and major failures. Let's count down the top self-driving stories of 2024

New safety data on Waymos, made by the insurer SwissRe, shore up claims of Waymos reducing risk on the road.

GM has killed Cruise's robotaxi project. In this article, I muse about some consequences, including why Tesla should buy it, what it means for global competition and what role the DMV played in the death of Cruise and what it should think about that. Link to the article in the comments.

Read my Forbes site story at Tesla should buy Cruise

Waymo in year one made a fixed-stop campus robotaxi service with cheap parts, 15 years before Tesla's demonstration of a similar concept. Robotaxi history began here.

Instead of Uber, a Nigeria based ride-hail finance enabler will run the depots and charging. Florida has a special history with robocars, but also presents challenges.

Stuck in a Thanksgiving line? Turns out the TSA knows a lot of things that can fix that, but we won't get them anytime soon. They can start with remote X-ray screeners.