It's not enough for robotaxis yet, and Tesla doesn't claim that it is. They just think they'll get there.
What they do claim is that with human supervision, it lowers the accident rate to one per 5.5 million miles, which is a lot better than the overall accident rate for all cars on the road. And unlike Waymo, it works everywhere. That's worthwhile even if it never improves from here.
Fwiw you can take your hands off the wheel now, you just have to watch the road. They got rid of the "steering wheel nag" with the latest version.
Well the recent NHTSA report [1] shows Tesla intentionally falsified those statistics, so we can assume Tesla-derived statements are intentionally deceptive until proven otherwise.
Tesla only counts pyrotechnic deployments for their own numbers which NHTSA states is only ~18% of all crashes which is derived from publicly available datasets. Tesla chooses to not even account for a literal 5x discrepancy derivable from publicly available data. They make no attempt to account for anything more complex or subtle. No competent member of the field would make errors that basic except to distort the conclusions.
The usage of falsified statistics to aggressively push product to the risk of their customers makes it clear that their numbers should not only be ignored, but assumed to be malicious.
> It's not enough for robotaxis yet, and Tesla doesn't claim that it is. They just think they'll get there.
"By 2019 it will be financially irresponsible not to own a Tesla, as you will be able to earn $30K a year by utilizing it as a robotaxi as you sleep."
This was always horseshit, and still is:
If each Tesla could earn $30K profit a year just ferrying people around (and we'd assume more, in this scenario, because it could be 24/7), why the hell is Tesla selling them to us versus printing money for themselves?
They do plan to run their own robotaxis. But there are several million Teslas on the road already. They're just leaving money on the table if they don't make them part of the network, and doing so means they have a chance to hit critical mass without a huge upfront capital expenditure.
... and then react in a split second, or what? it's simpler to say goodbyes before the trip.
> They just think they'll get there.
of course. I think too. eventually they'll hire the receptionist from Waymo and he/she will tell them to build a fucking world model that has some object permanence.
What they do claim is that with human supervision, it lowers the accident rate to one per 5.5 million miles, which is a lot better than the overall accident rate for all cars on the road. And unlike Waymo, it works everywhere. That's worthwhile even if it never improves from here.
Fwiw you can take your hands off the wheel now, you just have to watch the road. They got rid of the "steering wheel nag" with the latest version.