Just to clarify how woefully pathetic this "testing period" is: Waymo spent FIVE FUCKING *YEARS* testing AVs on public roads – after spending a full decade on R&D. Further, they did so in a Phoenix suburb with light traffic & wide roads. In this case "move fast & break stuff" would apply to PEOPLE. - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

jeffreymkirk.bsky.social • 2 days ago

Just to clarify how woefully pathetic this "testing period" is: Waymo spent FIVE FUCKING *YEARS* testing AVs on public roads – after spending a full decade on R&D. Further, they did so in a Phoenix suburb with light traffic & wide roads.

In this case "move fast & break stuff" would apply to PEOPLE.

Comments

jeffreymkirk.bsky.social•2 days ago

Since as it so happens this is part of my job, I can reasonably guesstimate what'll happen. First, Elon never allots enough bandwidth, so he'll successfully piss off a fuckload of early users bottlenecked on the app needed to request a ride. Likely to last for weeks absent some gatekeeping.

jeffreymkirk.bsky.social•2 days ago

Next we'll likely start to see an extension of both the pranks against AVs generally, like the initial ones against Waymo in AZ. People can act irrationally in the face of a truly novel invention, if only bc they're scared of the unknown.

But in Tesla's case they'll also do it just bc it's Tesla.

jeffreymkirk.bsky.social•2 days ago

Elon may have left DOGE, but he's leaving with a fuckload of ill will, and continued Tesla dealership vandalism is also still possible.

And on some upcoming weekend night in downtown Austin, some drunk-ass idiots will attempt to fuck with the robotaxis' sensors to literally keep it from moving.

jeffreymkirk.bsky.social•2 days ago

(Which, again, also already happened in Chandler. And SF. And against brands people *don't* actively hate.)

Note that Elon's announcement mentioned *testing* driverless AVs, but if that's they're operating plan it's fucking batshit. They *will* have haters out to get the cars, and severely so.

jeffreymkirk.bsky.social•2 days ago

Finally, just a quick reminder: the last time an asshole of a company launched robotaxi testing on public roads too soon, someone literally died.

An Uber test mule ran over & killed a pedestrian its sensors entirely missed. (It was night, but she should've easily been on the car's sonar sensors.)

jeffreymkirk.bsky.social•2 days ago

And that was on a street with very little foot traffic.

Downtown Austin gets literal thousands of cars nearly every weekend night.