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Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson doesn’t think Tesla will launch a robotaxi service in California (or anywhere else) next year despite Elon Musk’s recent claims.
“The fundamental problem is they don’t have the technology that works,” Levinson said Wednesday at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “And by business, I want to differentiate between a driver-assistance system that drives most of the time — except when it doesn’t.” And then you have to take charge – in exchange for a system that is so reliable and powerful that you don’t need a person in it.
Levinson went further and specifically pointed to Tesla’s decision to rely solely on cameras to support its driver assistance system. “Our perspective is that you really need a lot more hardware than Tesla is putting in its vehicles to build a robotaxi that is not only safe, but particularly safer than a human,” he said.
Levinson’s comments come just a few weeks after Musk unveiled the prototype of Tesla’s so-called robotic “Cybercab.” Musk also announced at the Cybercab event that Tesla wants to start allowing Model 3 sedans and Model Y SUVs to operate as robotaxis in California and Texas by the end of 2025.
Levinson said he uses Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervision) software “every couple of weeks.” While he called it “impressive,” he also said he found it “a bit stressful.”
“Usually he does the right thing, then he kind of lulls you into this false sense of complacency, and then he does the wrong thing,” he said. “You’re like, ‘Oh my God!’
Levinson went on to say that he believes FSD is “about 100 times less safe than a human if you look at all publicly available metrics.” (Tesla Editions Quarterly safety reports Which claims that its driver assistance system is involved in fewer accidents than cars without it – although these statistics are self-reported criticize As selective.)
The comments about Tesla came as Levinson announced that Zoox would launch a specially designed robotaxi in the San Francisco and Las Vegas markets in the coming weeks. The company plans to make it available to the early rider program in 2025.
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