People wait for bots, trash-talking Tesla and delivery drivers get targeted. LegalRideshare breaks it down.
Riders are canceling rides with human drivers. Business Insider reported:
In June, the ride-hailing service started offering the option to ride in autonomous vehicles in Atlanta through Uber's partnership with Waymo. It's the latest city where the company is experimenting with robotaxis as it looks to keep up with competing offerings from rivals like Tesla and Lyft.
These driverless vehicles seem to be amassing a contingent of enthusiasts who prefer them over human drivers. While Uber users cannot guarantee that they'll get a ride in a Waymo in Atlanta, some are working the system to get paired with one.
To find a Waymo, Galesic said, he has turned down about 20 human Uber drivers on average. “The fact that it's so challenging to get has turned it into a game,” he said.
Waymo founder has a message for Tesla: “What robotaxi?”. Electrek reported:
Waymo founder and former CEO John Krafcik is a critic of Tesla's approach to self-driving, and he has so far accurately predicted the rollout of the “Robotaxi” service.
He is now taking another dig at Tesla.
There's a Tesla employee in the front seat of every “Robotaxi” in the fleet, which is only about a dozen vehicles, based on crowdsource data, which is the only data available, as Tesla doesn't release any.
In new comments (via Business Insider), Krafcik makes it clear that he doesn't consider this to be a “robotaxi” service:
“Please let me know when Tesla launches a robotaxi — I'm still waiting. It's (rather obviously) not a robotaxi if there's an employee inside the car.”
More recently, Tesla expanded its “Robotaxi” service area to the Bay Area in California, but it again has an employee in the car, this time in the driver's seat.
Krafcik commented:
“If they were striving to re-create today's Bay Area Uber experience, looks like they've absolutely nailed it.”
Immigrant delivery drivers are being targeted. NBC News reported:
When his driver took longer than usual, DeSue checked the app and noticed something seemed wrong — the delivery driver's GPS location had stopped short of his address. He went outside to look for him.
“I stepped into the street, I looked down and see lights in the direction, like police lights, in the direction of where my driver was,” DeSue said in an interview. “It was my driver by himself and, like, nine different officers all wearing different uniforms. … Most of them had face coverings on.”
The men then cuff Sidi's hands, waist and feet before they put him in an unmarked car. DeSue said he has since reported the incident to Uber.
NBC News has not been able to verify the driver's full name, nationality or location, and Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Sunday afternoon, DeSue said, an area where 15 to 20 delivery drivers typically would be parked out front of his home looking at their phones for their next orders was an empty lot.
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