@CernBasher did write a thorough analysis that I recommend in your attention. I want to take a critical look at his predictions and discuss the nuanced realities of such a transformative technology.
👇🧵 https://x.com/CernBasher/status/1777709906461675595
1/10
Basher, as an investment analyst, suggests that robotaxis might revolutionize the auto industry's business model, with Tesla positioned to gain significantly. He anchors his forecast on a detailed cost comparison.
Owning a vehicle is the norm in today's paradigm, but it's a costly and rigid practice. The shift away from ownership promises to disrupt this, fundamentally changing our interaction with personal transport.
GM-Tochter Cruise nimmt auch die verbleibenden autonomen Autos von der Straße
Bei Cruise läuft die Aufarbeitung eines Unfalls mit einem Robotaxi. Jetzt nimmt die GM-Tochter alle Fahrzeuge von der Straße, um Vertrauen zurückzugewinnen.
via @kvnweb
“capital needs of #robotaxis —whether or not people ever actually want them—are almost unimaginably huge”
“big issues with #selfdriving cars is that they won't fail in the same ways that human driven cars fail”
“effort to move out of the testing phase, and effort to focus on growing revenue, and you end up with #Cruise's problems”
“Did they risk angering regulators with their lack of transparency? They did” https://apperceptive.substack.com/p/i-knew-this-was-coming#autonomousvehicles#GeneralMotors
On my personal blog, I wrote about how robotaxis represent the enshittification of mobility. They represent a spectacular failure of imagination on the part of Silicon Valley techbros, whose only answer to every question is 'just add software!'. Invariably, the wrong answer.
I point out that 15-minute cities actually benefit people who want to drive, by removing unwilling drivers from the roads.
San Francisco: Person stirbt nachdem Krankenwagen von Robotaxi blockiert wurde
Nachdem ein Krankenwagen auch wegen zweier bewegungsloser Robotaxis nicht schnell genug ins Krankenhaus konnte, kommt neue Kritik von Rettungsdiensten.
Waymo and Cruise were granted permission from California officials to expand their operations in San Francisco, but some of the residents are taking a stand and temporarily disabling the robotaxis. BBC journalist James Clayton seeks to understand why the city is so divided on self-driving vehicles.
As San Francisco opens to 24/7 #robotaxis, a look at #Cruise and #Waymo cars causing traffic jams and obstructing emergency vehicles, unraveling the public's trust.
I strongly suspect #robotaxis will end up being the geese that laid the golden eggs for Waymo/Google and Cruise/General Motors.
Cutting out drivers means no more salaries or (meager) benefits and it eliminates the risk of collective bargaining or unionization.
The companies will initially undercut public transit, cannibalizing its ridership, which then justify even more transit budget cuts and a worse transit experience for the poor folks who can't afford a robotaxi ride.
In any case, it just leads to a massive transfer of wealth upwards yet again, which can't be easily fixed, unlike any safety issues in the underlying technology.
"the magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it" (#JKGabraith)
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
Lyft is actually slightly better off than Uber overall. It spent less money on expensive props for its long con - #FlyingCars, #robotaxis, scooters, overseas clones - and abandoned them before Uber did. Lyft also fired 24% of its staff at the end of 2022, which should have improved its margins by cutting its costs.
#SelfDrivingCars#RoboTaxis#AVs#AI: "Years after the industry first promised self-driving cars were supposed to arrive, some boosters point to the trials happening in San Francisco as proof we’re finally on the cusp of the driverless revolution. But there’s plenty of reason to believe companies are once again overpromising on what they can deliver. The robotaxis are constantly blocking transit and emergency vehicles, and have become a new form of ubiquitous surveillance to aid the police department.
In the viral video, Safe Street Rebel advises opponents of the autonomous vehicles (AVs) to start placing the city’s many orange traffic cones on their hoods to disable them. It’s a protest, but it’s also a way to draw attention to an important decision by the state regulator on whether to significantly expand robotaxi services that was due to be made on July 13, but has now been delayed until August 10. The activist group says the delay is “a sign that our campaign is working.”
To understand more about what’s happening in San Francisco, I spoke with an anonymous activist from Safe Street Rebel. The original video has been removed from TikTok, but you can watch it on Instagram or Twitter."
They said it couldn't happen. After decades of #antitrust enforcement against #PredatoryPricing - selling goods below cost to kill existing competitors and prevent new ones from arising - the #ChicagoSchool of neoliberal #economists "proved" that predatory pricing didn't exist and that the courts could stand down and stop busting companies for it.
Millennial Lifestyle Subsidy companies are bezzles. Uber, annihilated tens of billions of dollars on its bezzle, destroying the taxi industry and laying waste to public transit investment, demolishing labor protections and convincing people that impossible #SelfDriving#RoboTaxis were around the coner:
Opinion: Uber was supposed to help traffic. It didn’t. Robotaxis will be even worse (www.sfchronicle.com)
From the opinion piece:...