MAROKO133 Breaking ai: Tesla Quietly Pauses Its “Unsupervised” Robotaxi Rides as Reality S

📌 MAROKO133 Breaking ai: Tesla Quietly Pauses Its “Unsupervised” Robotaxi Rides as

It appears that Tesla CEO Elon Musk may have once again duped his fans and investors — which, these days, is an increasingly meaningless distinction.

Last week, Musk made huge waves when he announced that the automaker’s Robotaxi service would finally be giving rides in Austin, Texas, without a human “safety monitor” in the car — something he promised would’ve been the case since day one.

What Musk left out of that announcement, however, was that the human supervisors were moved to another car that followed the robotaxi instead, a workaround that was as dishonest as it was impractical.

Now, the EV blog Electrek reports another bit of Musk subterfuge. Based on what the service’s customers are saying, it appears that, at this moment, none of the Robotaxi rides that Tesla has been giving are “unsupervised.”

The most convincing testimony comes from Tesla enthusiast David Moss, who made a name for himself by purportedly driving 10,000 miles on FSD v14 without any interventions. Dedicated as he is to the Tesla cause, he traveled to Austin to try out an “unsupervised” Robotaxi ride — but was left sorely disappointed. After a gobsmacking 42 rides, every single one he got came with a human safety monitor.

“This was also my 5th ride in a row with the supervisor in the drivers seat,” he complained on X. (Typically, the safety monitor sits in the front passenger seat.)

To be fair to Tesla, it looks like the “unsupervised” rides stopped after a massive winter storm slammed the country on Saturday, including Austin. The service has resumed since then, but Tesla has not communicated any potential changes in how the Robotaxis operate to the public. 

It’s worth asking why the unsupervised rides were launched just two days before a winter storm that everyone knew was coming. (Electrek implies it may have something to do with Tesla having to report its fourth quarter results from last year on January 28, which revealed that for that quarter, profits were down a staggering 61 percent compared to the same period last year.)

In any case, this seems like a another classic Musk bait-and-switch. The Robotaxi service has not lived up to his myriad outrageous promises, such as that it would have thousands of cars on the road within months of launching, or indeed would launch providing rides without any supervision in the car. The self-driving cabs have also been involved in numerous accidents and have been caught violating traffic laws, drawing the attention of federal regulators.

More on Tesla: Cybertruck Sales Show Stomach-Churning Drop

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🔗 Sumber: futurism.com

📌 MAROKO133 Eksklusif ai: Waymo Under Investigation After Crashing Into Child Outs

A Waymo Robotaxi struck and injured a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica, California, the company admitted in a recent announcement, prompting an investigation by federal regulators.

The incident, which took place on January 23, occurred after the child “suddenly entered the roadway from behind a tall SUV, moving directly in our vehicle’s path,” Waymo claimed. The robotaxi “immediately detected” the pedestrian and “braked hard,” slowing down from 17 miles per hour to under 6 miles per hour, before colliding with the child.

“Following contact, the pedestrian stood up immediately, walked to the sidewalk, and we called 911,” the company claimed. “The vehicle remained stopped, moved to the side of the road, and stayed there until law enforcement cleared the vehicle to leave the scene.”

That same day, Waymo says it reached out to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has now opened an investigation into the autonomous vehicle company. In its report to the regulator, Waymo said the child had sustained “minor injuries,” the NHTSA said in a recent filing.

The accident comes as Waymo is already under scrutiny from regulators over reports of its robotaxis illegally blowing past stopped school buses, ignoring their warning lights and extended stop arm. The NHTSA opened an investigation into the phenomenon last October, and last week, the National Transportation Safety Board ramped up the pressure on the company by announcing its own. Over 20 school bus incidents were reported in Austin, Texas, and at least six in Atlanta, Georgia. In a particularly brazen flouting of traffic laws, one Waymo allegedly drove near the students who were disembarking from the bus.

The regulators will be additionally concerned that Waymo has seemingly struggled to discipline its cars. Though it deployed a patch to address the school bus violations in November to over 3,000 of its robotaxis, an Austin school district reported at least one violation that occurred after the patch was applied.

That this latest incident also concerns school children may not be a coincidence. The NHTSA stated that the collision took place within two blocks of an elementary school during normal school drop off hours. There were also “other children, a crossing guard, and several double-parked vehicles in the vicinity” — clear clues that a driver should pick up on to drive extra carefully. 

The investigation will determine whether Waymo “exercised appropriate caution given, among other things, its proximity to the elementary school during drop off hours, and the presence of young pedestrians and other potential vulnerable road users.”

In its own defense, Waymo argued that its simulation model showed that a “fully attentive human driver in this same situation would have made contact with the pedestrian at approximately 14 mph,” which is several miles per hour faster than the Waymo’s reported speed. 

More on Waymo: Video Shows Passenger Bail From Waymo in Path of Oncoming Train

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🔗 Sumber: futurism.com