Tesla Robotaxi Rumors Fueling Hollywood Anger at Elon Musk
www.hollywoodreporter.com
As Tesla is reportedly planning a reveal of its new self-driving robotaxi at Warner Bros, amid widespread anger at CEO Elon Musk.

Tesla is reportedly planning a reveal of its self-driving robotaxi on the Warner Bros. lot amid widespread anger in the industry over the brand’s controversial CEO, Elon Musk, resulting in a rejection of its cars.

  • @Whats_your_reasoning
    17•4 hours ago

    I have a lot of safety questions about a driverless taxi. Unless the car gets inspected between every ride (doubtful), what’s to stop someone from staying in the car past their stop? Will I get jumped by the previous passenger? What if someone left something dangerous in it? People innocently forget things all the time, which sucks on its own, but malicious actors could easily exploit an unmanned public(ish) vehicle.

    Hell, who cleans it? If someone vomited on their trip home from a bar, will I be greeted by their mess when the taxi comes to me? From what I know of people, rules for passengers can and will be swiftly ignored without a driver in charge to make sure the rules are followed. Cameras wouldn’t stop everything, and honestly, who would want to be monitored by a camera throughout a taxi ride?

    It’s obvious that Elon’s never ridden in a taxi in his life.

    • @AA5B
      8•2 hours ago

      Sure but those are solvable. Personally I’m nowhere near as optimistic about the self-driving. I hope we eventually get it and current tech is truly amazing but it’s just not acceptable.

      So far self-driving has mainly proven

      • driving is all edge cases. Handling normal conditions is only the starting point
      • it’s all about liability. Even if it’s provably safer than human driving, what human will accept their loved ones being killed by a self-driving car and what manufacturer will shoulder that liability?
    • @[email protected]
      3•3 hours ago

      Those things have cameras inside, they just won’t move if another passenger is still inside. There’s definitely questions about how reliable driverless cars are from a safety POV, and a future where you don’t own any transport and are at the mercy of some private corporation, but the stuff you mention is easy to figure out.

        • @WhyFlip
          -3•2 hours ago

          There are cameras in the cab. In the event of someone vomiting in the cab, it’ll be taken out of rotation and cleaned.

          • @irotsomaEnglish
            4•48 minutes ago

            But how does the company know that someone vomited? There aren’t smell sensors, and even if there are enough cameras to get a view of the floor, the tech for detecting spills and other issues is not really there yet. Unless you think a person is going to remotely inspect each vehicle between each ride. But that seems highly unlikely. If a company is not wanting to spend money on a driver, then they aren’t going to spend money on someone to watch the cameras at all times. The point is they don’t want to hire people at all. Just have computers that don’t have to take bathroom breaks or food breaks or have any downtime and can work in unpleasant conditions. Customer service is a big part of what drivers do, even if that doesn’t mean talking to the customers directly, just knowing how to make then comfortable, not just the driving. If it’s just the driving, then public transportation makes more sense to automate than individual cars.