Tesla’s Robotaxis Hit the Streets of Austin - But With a Few Hiccups

Waymo rides now available on the Uber app in Atlanta, Vay partners with Kodiak to bring remote driving to autonomous trucks, and Travis Kalanick in talks with Uber to team up on self-driving?!

Hey, it’s Harry! Welcome to the 86 new subscribers who have signed up since our last newsletter. I’m excited to have you join the 1,829 AV enthusiasts, executives, and industry professionals who are already on board. It’s great to have you along for the ride as we explore the intersection of autonomy and rideshare, and the business of AVs.

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Top Stories of the Week

Image Credit: Tesla

Tesla rolls out robotaxis in Austin (link). In a carefully released launch on Sunday, Tesla deployed a small group of robotaxis to select Tesla influencers. And in classic Musk style, all rides were priced at $4.20 (obviously just a marketing gimmick and not reflective of actual long term pricing). The automaker had planned for a small trial with about 10 vehicles (at least 11 were counted), and safety drivers in the passenger seat - though it was unclear how much control they had over the vehicles.

I’m not convinced that a safety driver or even a remote operator can really do much in the event of an emergency. Obviously, it’s better than nothing, and I’m guessing they can ‘slam on the brakes’ but there’s no steering wheel or other real functionality. So I’d argue that the car is basically driving on its own and Tesla deserves some credit for this launch.

For a limited rollout like this, we should expect no major issues (deaths or at fault accidents). But beyond qualitative incidents like deaths or accidents, it’s a gray area as to how big or small some of the hiccups were (full list here):

• Robotaxi unexpectedly slams on brakes, causing the rider to drop phone (link).

• Robotaxi drives into oncoming lane (link).

• Rider presses pull over and the car just stopped in the middle of the road. Safety monitor has to call rider support to get car moving again (link).

• Robotaxi doesn't detect UPS driver's reverse lights (or the car reversing towards it) and continues to attempt to park, then safety monitor manually stops it (link).

The phantom braking and ‘driving on the wrong side of the street’ seemed like the two biggest issues to me. And Tesla needs to fix all of these before opening up rides to the wider public, but I think you can make an argument that we see mishaps like this from Waymo occasionally too. Now Waymo is doing 250,000 trips per week so the denominator is a lot larger in their case, but not every ride is being recorded and published to the internet like it was with the Tesla launch.

Ultimately, a lot of the minor AV safety issues are subjective and it’s hard to compare, so I’ll let you be the judge. What do you think of Tesla’s robotaxi rollout?

Uber, Waymo robotaxi service opens to passengers in Atlanta (link). Atlanta is now the second city (after Austin) where you can only hail a Waymo on the Uber app. And the service covers a 65-square-mile zone that includes Downtown, Buckhead, and Capitol View.

The rollout is open to anyone using the Uber app within that area. And like in Austin, there are no guarantees you’ll get a robotaxi every time. Riders need to opt in to the ‘Waymo on Uber’ option and then request an UberX, Uber Comfort, or Comfort Electric — and if a Waymo is available, you’ll get the option to accept the ride.

Uber in Talks With Its Founder, Travis Kalanick, to Fund Self-Driving Car Deal (link). According to two sources familiar with the matter, TK is looking to acquire the U.S. subsidiary of Chinese autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai. While financial details remain unclear, Pony went public in the U.S. last year, raising $260 million in its IPO. The company is currently valued at around $4.5 billion.

Well this story from NYT’s Mike Isaac certainly gave me deja vu as he was one of the lead reporters during Uber’s media heyday frenzy. Not a lot of details here but it sounds like Uber would potentially be looking to invest in Pony if TK took over. This is right in line with Uber’s AV strategy though - they haven’t shown a real inclination to develop any tech themselves and instead have relied on multiple partners. Uber benefits from a fragmented AV market since they aggregate all of the demand, but the problem with this strategy is that Waymo is the only AV company with a true driverless ridehail service right now. So it makes sense that Uber wants to take a more direct investment approach in up and coming AV players. The more the merrier, for Uber at least..

Thomas von der Ohe on Vay’s new partnership with Kodiak (Interview) (link). I was excited to record this interview with Vay CEO Thomas von der Ohe and break the news about their latest partnership with Kodiak Robotics to bring remote driving to Kodiak’s autonomous trucks. We also touched on a couple of topics including what sets Vay apart in the autonomy space, common skepticisms around remote driving, and how Vay tackles the “last 1%” of autonomous driving.

Cool Rides

First Ride in a Tesla Robotaxi (link). And another couple (link, link).

‘I might be the last person in Austin to ride a Waymo but it won’t be my last. I finally tried one this week, no driver, just me in the backseat of the future’ (link).

AVs/Human behaving badly

Here’s a running list of all of Tesla’s robotaxi mishaps so far (link). This is the same last that I shared above and I do recommend you quickly watch each one (only takes a few minutes in total).

2 injured after shots fired at Waymo vehicle in Santa Monica (link). Thankfully, the suspect has been arrested (link).

Waymo stuck driving in circles with passengers inside (link). And going the wrong way :)

Waymo to the Rescue 💪

‘Another regular day in Austin: adventurous kids on bikes, wandering possums, reckless pedestrians, and distracted drivers… the Waymo Driver is unflustered’ (link).

Other Stuff

Waymo’s Self-Driving Future Is Here (link). Good write-up on everything Waymo’s been up to lately. The article also confirmed that Waymo Teen will be launching in Phoenix this summer (we wrote about it a few months ago). And it was nice to see a couple quotes from The Rideshare Guy’s Sergio Avedian:

I love the way they drive: I think they drive better than me.

Tesla robotaxi launch war-room (link). Anyone know what the 35 stands for? (link).

Taking the wheel: US and China jockey for robotaxi leadership (link, no paywall).

Tesla has now opened their Robotaxi service up to customers… before Zoox (link).

US investigates Tesla’s Robotaxi launch after videos show erratically driving cars (link).

Driverless cars meet union resistance as Massachusetts Legislature considers new rules (link).

Tesla’s former head of AI warns against believing that self-driving is solved (link).

NYC cab drivers fear death of industry as Waymo aims to launch driverless taxis (link). These fears are valid, and in a recent poll we performed, 30% of drivers say they’re extremely worried about AVs. But for now, that concern hasn’t translated into lost income. As Gridwise CEO Ryan Green puts it:

Drivers are still working at the same pace, getting the same incentives, and taking as many trips as before.

OpenAI’s Self-Driving Ambitions (link, no paywall).

Why Lyft is convening its drivers to plan the future of robotaxis (link). Kudos to Lyft for continuing to involve drivers in the conversation around AVs, I wish Uber would do the same.

Tesla has been working on modified Model Ys for its Robotaxi program (link).

Serve Robotics Brings Autonomous Robot Delivery to Atlanta with Uber Eats, Shake Shack and Local Favorites (link).

Elon Musk Has Fired One Of His Top Tesla Lieutenants, Omead Afshar (link, no paywall).

What else we're listening to

TBPN by John Coogan and Jordi Hayes: TBPN | Tuesday, June 10th (link). They bring on Alex Israel, co-founder and CEO of Metropolis Technologies at the 2:47:19 mark, and they touch on the future of parking lots in a world of autonomous vehicles. And it was also cool to see their interview with Farzad live from a robotaxi ride.

Shout-outs

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Until next week.

-Harry