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‘Lidar is lame’: why Elon Musk’s vision for a self-driving Tesla taxi faltered (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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After years of promising investors that millions of Tesla robotaxis would soon fill the streets, Elon Musk debuted his driverless car service in a limited public rollout in Austin, Texas. It did not go smoothly.

The 22 June launch initially appeared successful enough, with a flood of videos from pro-Tesla social media influencers praising the service and sharing footage of their rides. Musk celebrated it as a triumph, and the following day, Tesla’s stock rose nearly 10%.

What quickly became apparent, however, was that the same influencer videos Musk promoted also depicted the self-driving cars appearing to break traffic laws or struggle to properly function. By Tuesday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had opened an investigation into the service and requested information from Tesla on the incidents.

Let me tell you how thrilled we all are to have a new hazard added to Austin streets.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Gut feeling, I agree. That said, I've heard from friends (let's hear it for hearsay!) that their friends and relatives seem to be going away from their core beliefs and instead believing everything endlessly spat at them by a glowing rectangle.

I have to think there's an Ouroboros aspect to all of this. Regardless of Musk's upbringing, he did bring electric vehicles front and center and oversaw the creation of reusable rockets. These are not small things. Many would be content with that, but then he went megalomaniac ... MOAR ... MOAR, and now we're seeing declining sales at Tesla; Xitter is, well, whatever it is; and SpaceX hasn't been doing great of late.

I'm reminded of Tom from MySpace. Got a few million on the way out, and he's under the radar, presumably enjoying cocktails with umbrellas in them. Like, if you're set for life, maybe don't try again.