Not a Surprise

This is my Shocked Face

The news that used fraudulent data to get approval for its self-driving systems.

Gee, who saw that coming?

As if things couldn’t get any worse for Tesla in Europe, traffic safety researchers now say they’ve caught the company cooking numbers they gave to regulators in order to get its “Full Self-Driving” system approved.

The discrepancy was spotted by Reuters, which claims that data Tesla gave to authorities in Sweden and the Netherlands grossly exaggerated the safety record of FSD in the United States.

Reuters reports that in a presentation meant for Swedish regulators, Tesla’s policy manager Ivan Komusanac claimed that Tesla’s FSD can travel over seven times farther between crashes than human drivers in the US. Using that claim as a jumping-off point, the presentation continued by claiming that Tesla’s FSD could have saved 32,000 lives and prevented 1.9 million injuries over an indeterminate period of time, the publication reports.

In the old days, Elon Musk would be in jail for fraud.

The Term for this is Inflation

So, the Wall Street Journal is lauding the end of the 4 year trucking slump, trumpeting the increasing freight rates in recent weeks.

This is inflation marker, not an essential turn around in industry. 

Truckers who held on through almost four years of slumping freight rates finally have something to celebrate. 

“It feels like a breath of air for an industry that maybe felt like they were running out of air,” said Webb Estes, president and chief operating officer of Estes Express Lines, a Richmond, Va.-based carrier with revenue of about $6 billion. 

Trucking executives are calling an end to one of the longest freight downturns in carriers’ memory. They say rates have risen to more sustainable levels after a period of low earnings coupled with Trump administration crackdowns on immigrant drivers pushed many carriers out of the market. 

The Logistics Managers’ Index, a monthly survey of supply-chain managers, showed transportation prices increased in May at the fastest rate for any metric in the report’s 10-year history.

This is not a good thing

And The Tolls Are Coming Back

In news that would surprise no one, Iran has announced that they will be restarting transit fees Strait of Hormuz after 60 days.

Gee, color me completely unsurprised.

Iran has announced plans to introduce a system of maritime fees in the strait of Hormuz in two months, after the 60-day period of negotiation that has been triggered by the signing of the memorandum of understanding.

Tehran, claiming a historic victory over the US, said the strait was under its control and a European plan for a naval mission to escort ships though the strait would not be welcome. The US on Thursday lifted its blockade of Iran, and oil tankers began freely moving through the critical channel.

………

The talks, which are the first direct meeting between the two sides since they met in Islamabad on 12 April, will be focused on how to implement the 14-clause memorandum, including how to lift sanctions on Iran’s oil exports and ensure that commercial traffic starts to flow freely through the strait of Hormuz.

In a blow to those hoping the strait of Hormuz would be restored to full and permanent freedom of navigation, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator, said the strait needed to be managed, which would come at a cost. 

Trump is a loser.

Crap

Slate Auto promises to put out a low cost, bare bones, and spyware free electric pickup truck, which sounds good, but then I discovered that Jeff Bezos is a major backer of the firm.

My eldest had expressed an interest in something like this, so I need to tell them not to buy this.

Ahead of its launch late this year, Jeff Bezos-backed Slate Auto is figuring out how it’s going to sell its all-electric small pickup truck, and it’s reportedly getting on board with online automotive retailer Carvana.

According to TechCrunch, Carvana was given a warrant for shares in Slate Auto last year, based on documents from the State of Delaware Division of Corporations. The move comes as the startup automaker prepares to release details such as official prices later this month, as well as the end of reservations and the beginning of preordering. Since last year, Slate Auto has offered a $50 reservation fee to be among the first in line and reported 100,000 reservations in two weeks.

(emphasis mine)

So both Bezos and Carvana.  That is a truly toxic mixture.

………

The Slate Truck was announced in April 2025 as a back-to-basics EV that won’t come standard with features such as power windows or an infotainment system. Buyers, however, will be able to customize the vehicle with vinyl wraps and even an enclosed SUV body with a rear seat. By doing this, the company targets a sub-$30,000 starting price.

Yeah, pretty bare bones.

Speaking of Fraud

Following a certification of a class action lawsuit against Tesla for misleading about, "Full Self Driving," Tesla retroactively and surreptitiously changed the terms of existing contracts.

I'm an engineer, not a lawyer dammit,* but this seems to me to be to be a deliberate attempt at spoliation of evidence, which would mean that the judge could (probably should) instruct the jury that this behavior is an indicator that the party in question was acting from a knowledge of their guilt/responsibility.

Here's hoping that the Apartheid Era Emerald Heir Pedo Guy™ gets his flabby white ass handed to him in court.

Tesla has retroactively modified “Full Self-Driving” purchase agreements to add “supervised” language that did not exist when owners originally bought the product. In some cases, the original documents have been made entirely inaccessible.

Electrek has confirmed the issue with multiple owners. The contracts in question were signed between 2016 and early 2024, when Tesla sold the package as “Full Self-Driving Capability” — with no mention of “supervised” and the implicit promise of unsupervised autonomy.

……… 

The critical detail: on both accounts, the only documents that are inaccessible are those that would reference FSD purchase details. Every other document, including purchase agreements for vehicles without FSD, opens without issue.

“It’s crazy because there are zero issues opening any documents on both accounts except those that would have the FSD purchase details documented,” Abcarius said. “Super fishy.”

Electrek has confirmed that other Tesla owners, specifically those with Tesla HW3 vehicles and FSD, have the same issue. The issue specifically affects contracts from the era when Tesla sold FSD without “supervised” language.

………

Making original purchase agreements inaccessible fits a broader pattern.

In August 2024, Tesla deleted a blog post from October 2016 that stated “all Tesla vehicles produced in our factory — including Model 3 — will have the hardware needed for full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver.” The post was removed without explanation while lawsuits were building. It is still accessible through the Wayback Machine.

 Now, the original contracts that would show Tesla sold FSD without any “supervised” qualifier are becoming inaccessible — right as Tesla faces up to $14.5 billion in lawsuits spanning FSD false advertising, Autopilot crash liability, and securities fraud.

When will Elon be frog marched out of his offices in handcuffs? 

^*I love it when I get to go all Dr. McCoy!

F%$# Flock

An amendment has been proposed to a major transportation bill that would ban the use of automated license plate readers for any purpose beyond toll booths.

It appears that the anti-Flock movement has friends in Congress. 

US lawmakers plan to introduce an amendment Thursday at a House committee markup hearing that would prohibit any recipient of federal highway funding from using automated license plate readers for any purpose other than tolling—a sweeping restriction that, if adopted, would bring an immediate end to state and local ALPR programs across the United States.

The amendment, obtained first by WIRED, is sponsored by Representative Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican and Freedom Caucus member, and Representative Jesús “Chuy” García, an Illinois progressive whose state has become a flash point in the national fight over ALPR misuse.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will mark up the underlying bill—a $580 billion, five-year reauthorization of federal surface transportation programs—at 10 am ET on Thursday.

Neither Perry nor García's offices immediately responded to WIRED's request for comment.

The amendment runs a single sentence: “A recipient of assistance under Title 23, United States Code, may not use automated license plate readers for any purpose other than tolling.”

Here's hoping it passes. 

Elections Matter

Zorhan Mamdani has recovered more than $9 million from Amazon for violating environmental regulations.

Before this, Amazon ignored the fines for leaving their trucks idling.

Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani, New York City Department of Finance (DOF) Commissioner Richard Lee, and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Lisa F. Garcia today announced that the City has successfully recovered more than $9 million from Amazon after the company’s delivery vehicles accrued fines due to idling violations.

“Amazon is worth $2 trillion. Yet, it did not deign to pay the millions of dollars it racked up in unpaid fines as its’ trucks illegally polluted our air and forced New Yorkers to breathe in their exhaust. We are going to collect every dollar they owe the people of this city,” said Mayor Mamdani. “These laws exist for a reason: cleaner air, healthier communities, and a city where corporations are held to the same standard as everyone else. Today we are making clear that no company – no matter how large or powerful – is above the law.”

“As part of the Mayor’s directive to ensure fairness, collaboration, and accountability in our agency’s service to New Yorkers, the Department of Finance is committed to collecting debts owed to the City and supporting enforcement efforts that protect New Yorkers’ quality of life,” said DOF Commissioner Richard Lee. “The successful collection effort led by DOF Deputy Commissioner Annette Hill and her team, demonstrates the effectiveness of this administration working collaboratively with companies to ensure compliance, holding entities accountable for meeting their financial obligations to the City, and assisting companies like Amazon to prevent accumulating debt.”

“I applaud Mayor Mamdani and the Department of Finance for securing more than $9 million in illegal idling fines from Amazon, which has long been among the top worst idling offenders in the city,” said DEP Commissioner Lisa F. Garcia. “Through the Citizens Air Complaint Program, New Yorkers can report idling with a video upload — helping us cut air pollution and improve quality of life.”

Earlier this year, at Mayor Mamdani’s direction, DOF’s Collections Unit launched a targeted effort to address the huge number of unpaid idling summonses connected to vehicles operating within Amazon’s delivery network. Since then, the Collections Unit has worked collaboratively with Amazon.com, Inc. and its contracted transportation vendors to recover the outstanding debt.

The enforcement effort focused on idling violations associated with vehicles operating through Amazon Logistics, which relies on a network of third-party transportation contractors. As a result of these efforts, DOF collected $6.88 million in ECB judgment violations and an additional $2.15 million in pre-judgment ECB violations.

New York City’s anti-idling laws are designed to reduce harmful air pollution, improve public health and combat climate change. Under City law, most vehicles may not idle for longer than three minutes while parked, standing, or stopped.

New Yorkers can report idling vehicles anonymously through 311, by filing a complaint online, or by participating in DEP’s Citizens Air Complaint Program. The Citizens Air Complaint Program has seen a 1,700 percent increase in submissions since it launched in 2009. So far in 2026, it has received 62,680 complaints — putting the program on track for its biggest year yet. Idling violations may also be issued directly by DEP inspectors. For more information about New York City’s idling laws and enforcement is available through NYC Department of Environmental Protection.

This may not be a big thing, but it is a significant thing.

Making rich lawbreakers pay is important. 

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

There is an upside to rising gas prices, increased use of mass transit.

This should not be a surprise, but in the land of pedestrian killing SUVs, it is a bit surprising.

Higher gas prices are bringing some Americans back to public transit.

The increase in ridership comes as the war in Iran has disrupted oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, pushing the national average price of gasoline beyond $4.50 per gallon. In California, drivers are paying more than $6.15 per gallon on average.

Rising fuel prices have historically pushed at least some Americans toward buses and trains, particularly commuter rail. But experts caution that decades of car-oriented development and inconsistent transit funding still leave most people with few practical alternatives to driving.

For those reasons, ridership is rising most sharply in places with robust transit systems and steep fuel prices.

There are a whole host of societal ills that are tied to America's pathological obsession with cars.

Thould this change, it would be a good thing. 

The Supreme Court Gets One Right

The specific issue may seem a bit arcane, the liability of freight brokers when they select unsafe trucking companies, but it a big deal, and hopefully we will see it further expanded to see the liability extended to other industries where contractors are used to deflect responsibility for the big actors.  

At issue is the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA) which preempts most state regulation of transportation, things like rates and scheduling, but the law does give the states authority to regulate safety and required insurance.

The lower courts appeared to ignore the black letter law on this, and conclude that the brokers were indemnified, but the Supreme Court actually went with the actual law on this one.

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held Thursday that federal law does not preempt a state lawsuit claiming a shipping broker hired an unsafe trucking company, leading to a crash and severe injuries.

The court said the 1994 Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act preempts most state regulation of the trucking industry but contains a carve-out for state safety regulations "with respect to motor vehicles."

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the entire court, stated that the exception includes a state lawsuit accusing a shipping broker of negligently hiring a trucking company.

The decision revives a suit by Shawn Montgomery, who was on the side of an Illinois highway when his vehicle was struck by a Mack truck, leading to the amputation of a leg and other permanent injuries. Montgomery sued the driver, Yosniel Varela-Mojena; the trucking company, Caribe Transport II; and the broker that coordinated the shipment, C.H. Robinson Worldwide.

Montgomery alleged the broker knew or should have known about Caribe's poor safety rating from a federal regulator and that an accident was likely to occur.

A federal district court found that Montgomery's negligent hiring claim against C.H. Robinson was preempted by the FAAAA, a decision upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

The Supreme Court said applying the language of the federal law's safety exception to Montgomery's claim was "straightforward."

"Requiring C.H. Robinson to exercise ordinary care in selecting a carrier... 'concerns' motor vehicles—most obviously, the trucks that will transport the goods," Barrett wrote. "So Montgomery’s negligent-hiring claim falls within the FAAAA’s safety exception, which saves it from preemption."

Of note here, as significant proportion of Amazon delivery drivers are contractors, even though Amazon specifies the routes to the second and foot, hence the infamous Amazon piss bottles, and so this should apply to Amazon as well.

I would like to see this applied top subcontracting more generally, there are numerous instances where contractors are used to skirt wage and safety laws, but I'm not too hopeful.

What Took Them So Long?

The DoJ has finally filed charges against the owner of the MV Dali for the destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

It's been pretty obvious that they f%$#ed up, on the day of the crash.

The Justice Department has filed criminal charges against a Singapore-based global shipping company and subsidiaries, accusing them of safety violations that led to the massive container ship crash that caused the 2024 collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Prosecutors accused entities of Synergy Marine Group of fostering unsafe conditions by not maintaining proper systems aboard its ship, the Dali, and others in its fleet. Those lapses left the Dali unable to recover from a blackout of its systems and unable to veer away as it crashed into the bridge in the early hours of March 26, 2024, leaving six men dead.

The indictment, returned under seal in federal court in Baltimore last month, also alleges the company falsified safety inspection records and lied to investigators after the crash.

The company as well as the Dali’s technical supervisor, Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair, face charges including counts of conspiracy; misconduct or neglect of ship officers resulting in death; violations of the Clean Water Act and Ports and Waterways Safety Act; and obstruction of an agency proceeding.

 

From the Department of, "About F%$#ing Time"

The California DMV has issued new regulations allowing police to ticket robotaxies.

Hopefully cops will take this responsibility seriously.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles announced new autonomous vehicle regulations on Tuesday that will, among other things, allow police officers to issue moving violations to AV companies like Waymo and Tesla when their robotaxis break the law.

The new regulations, which will be enforced starting July 1, also require AV companies to respond to first responder calls within 30 seconds. Emergency officials will be allowed to issue geofencing instructions that force robotaxis to be cleared from areas where an active emergency is taking place.

………

Back in 2023, NBC Bay Area was the first to report that robotaxis were immune from traffic tickets since humans needed to be present to accept the ticket. It took almost three years, but that problem has now been fixed.

………

Wired published a new piece on Thursday about complaints from emergency responders, including firefighters, police officers, EMTs, and paramedics, who have warned that some robotaxis seem to be performing worse than when they were initially introduced. Wired cites a private meeting between emergency responders and federal officials in March, where robotaxis were described as blocking fire stations and “freezing up” in dangerous ways.

One question though, how do you handcuff a Waymo?

Maybe I Was Too Cynical

While I was not pleased when Abigail Spanberger won the Democratic primary for Governor of Virginia, former CIA officers are not my first choice for elected officials, she is clearly better than her predecessor the antediluvian Glenn Youngkin.

Since her taking office, I have been impressed by her actions, such as her stripping tax exemption from Confederacy huggers, rolling back executive orders requiring law enforcement to collude with ICE, and supporting a constitutional amendment restoring felon voter rights.

She is not playing nice, as can be seen by her signature on a bill ending Robert E. Lee license plates in the Commonwealth.

Being willing to stick it to racist dirt-bags is a good thing. 

Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed Del. Dan Helmer’s bill to end the renewal of commemorative Robert E. Lee license plates in Virginia Wednesday, according to a press release.

A portion of the sale of these plates has previously supported the neo-Confederate organization known as the Sons of the Confederacy.

“The Confederacy was a four year period in which traitors hellbent on preserving slavery tried – and then failed – to divide the Union,” said Helmer in a statement. “The Confederacy and its leaders do not deserve our commemoration, and its adherents certainly do not deserve taxpayer dollars.”

More red meat please.

No Do It World Wide

As a result of investigations into Elon Musk's lies regarding the autonomy of Tesla electric vehicles, has been forced to drop its Autopilot branding and add a disclaimer to its Full Self Driving branding.

I think that this is weak tea, but it should go nation wide, if not world wide. 

Tesla has complied with an order by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and stopped using the term "Autopilot" in its marketing of electric vehicles, having already modified use of "Full Self-Driving" to clarify that it requires driver supervision. 

………

This comes after Tesla was given 60 days from December 16, 2025 to fall in line with the agency's request. 

The requirement followed a lengthy case over Tesla's use of the words "Autopilot" and "Full Self-Driving" in relation to its advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), along with the sentence: "The system is designed to be able to conduct short and long-distance trips with no action required by the person in the driver's seat." 

………

The Administrative Law Judge proposed suspending Tesla's manufacturing and dealer licenses for 30 days. However, a later review gave Elon Musk's EV outfit 60 days to stop using the terms.

They should have thrown the book at him. 

This has been fraud, and it has been fraud for well over a decade. 

Chickens Finally Come Home to Roost.

A jury just found the Gypsy Cab ride sharing company liable for a woman's rape by one of their drivers 

Their business model has always been to take the money and offset the costs on their drivers and passengers, and that includes safety.

The jury decided that it was worth $8-½ million.

Hopefully, this is the first of many such verdicts.

A federal jury in Phoenix on Thursday ordered Uber to pay $8.5 million to a passenger who said one of its drivers had raped her, setting the stage for thousands of similar cases around the country.

The ride-hailing giant has long maintained that it is not liable for the misconduct of drivers on its platform, whom it classifies as independent contractors, not employees. But the jury rejected that defense, providing a road map for more than 3,000 pending sexual assault and sexual misconduct lawsuits that accuse the company of systemic safety failures.

The lawsuit was brought by Jaylynn Dean, who said her Uber driver raped her in November 2023 during a ride to her hotel from her boyfriend’s apartment in Tempe, Ariz.

………

Uber fended off other claims in the case, including that it was negligent in its safety practices and that its app was defective.

The jury’s award fell far short of the $144 million that Ms. Dean’s lawyers had requested in damages. The jury did not dish out heavier penalties in part because it did not find that the company’s actions were “outrageous, oppressive or intolerable” or that they created substantial risk or significant harm.Uber fended off other claims in the case, including that it was negligent in its safety practices and that its app was defective.

………

Uber faces increasing scrutiny across the country as lawmakers, investors and others move to hold the company accountable for a pervasive pattern of sexual violence during rides.

Ms. Dean’s case is a bellwether in federal court proceedings that have consolidated thousands of the sexual assault lawsuits against Uber, allowing for certain procedural matters to be presented before the same judge while each case is tried individually. The verdict is not binding on the other cases, but it offered a “real-world test” of the arguments in front of a jury, said Nora Freeman Engstrom, a professor at Stanford Law School.

………

Over three weeks, jurors weighed the harrowing personal account of Ms. Dean as well as testimony from Uber executives and thousands of pages of internal company documents, including some showing that Uber had flagged her ride as a higher risk for a serious safety incident moments before she was picked up. Uber never warned her, with an executive testifying that it would have been “impractical” to do so.

"Impractical," huh?  More like unprofitable.

Lawyers for Ms. Dean introduced documents suggesting that Uber resisted introducing safety features such as in-car cameras because it believed these measures would slow corporate growth. 

There really needs to be a concerted effort to criminally prosecute executives who blithely approve policies which endanger the general public.

Once they start getting frog marched out of their offices in handcuffs, they and their fellow sociopaths will think twice about continuing their behavior.

Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. 

Funny That

Even using Tesla's own highly suspect numbers, their Robotaxi is three times more likely to crash than a human driver, and this applies even when there is a safety driver behind the wheel.

I would note that Tesla's so-called full self driving would not be any more capable for a passenger car, which makes it, "Unsafe at any speed." 

Tesla’s nascent robotaxi program is off to a rough start. New NHTSA crash data, combined with Tesla’s new disclosure of robotaxi mileage, reveals Tesla’s autonomous vehicles are crashing at a rate much higher tha human drivers, and that’s with a safety monitor in every car.

The data

According to NHTSA’s Standing General Order crash reports, Tesla has reported 9 crashes involving its robotaxi fleet in Austin, Texas between July and November 2025: November 2025: Right turn collision

• October 2025: Incident at 18 mph
• September 2025: Hit an animal at 27 mph
• September 2025: Collision with cyclist
• September 2025: Rear collision while backing (6 mph)
• September 2025: Hit a fixed object in parking lot
• July 2025: Collision with SUV in construction zone
• July 2025: Hit fixed object, causing minor injury (8 mph)
• July 2025: Right turn collision with SUV

According to a chart in Tesla’s Q4 2025 earnings report showing cumulative robotaxi miles, the fleet has traveled approximately 500,000 miles as of November 2025. That works out to roughly one crash every 55,000 miles.

For comparison, human drivers in the United States average approximately one police-reported crash every 500,000 miles, according to NHTSA data.

That means Tesla’s robotaxis are crashing at a rate 9 times higher than the average human driver.

However, that figure doesn’t include non-police-reported incidents. When adding those, or rather an estimate of those, humans are closer to 200,000 miles between crashes, which is still a lot better than Tesla’s robotaxi in Austin.

I am of the opinion that self-driving cars remain more humbug than anything else, but even by the standards of this reality challenged endeavor, Tesla appears to be particularly bad at its execution as a result of Elon Musk's insistence that it eschew technologies such as radar and lidar, and instead rely entirely on cameras..

Look Out Below

The 4th largest intermodal trucking company in the United States has just declared bankruptcy.

I guess they couldn't squeeze any more blood from their drivers. 

After nearly half a century in the business, a trucking company has filed for bankruptcy.

This news signals the latest of what’s being called the “Great Freight Recession,” during which a demand for shipping services has dropped while capacity has stayed high.

According to industry publication FreightWaves, STG Logistics — a Dublin, Ohio-based institution that also happens to be the country’s fourth-largest asset-based intermodal marketing company — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey on Monday.

This pre-negotiated plan, FreightWaves explains, wipes out 91 percent of STG’s almost $1 billion debt. It also gives it $1140 [sic should be $140 million] in new capital in order to support its core business operations, and to compensate its employees and vendors.  

Best economy ever, huh?

We are already in a full recession, not just a, "Freight recession." 

So Much Winning, Not Sarcasm Edition

I am referring, or course, to New York City's congestion pricing, which, much like London's earlier program, is a resounding success, with decreases in air pollution, noise, congestion, traffic deaths, pedestrian fatalities, and improved commute times.

Gee, hoocoodanode? (Basically anyone who saw what happened when "Red" Ken Livingstone did this same thing decades earlier.)

Surprise! A public policy initiative panned by drivers and pro-car pundits turned out to instead be a roaring success that improved traffic congestion, road safety, and even reduced pollution — a godsend not just for those living in Manhattan, but for transit riders, drivers, and outer-borough residents.

Congestion pricing is a policy which charges drivers a toll of up to $9 for using surface-roads below Manhattan’s 60th street, an area known as the Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ), which is enforced by over 1,400 license-plate cameras.

……… 

As a result, those who do drive or use surface-level transit like buses experience much less traffic. Over the past year, average travel speeds increased 4.5 percent in the congestion zone, while the rest of New York City experienced a 1.4 percent increase. Local bus speeds are also up noticeably, increasing 2.4 percent in the CRZ, and 0.8 percent throughout the rest of the city.

The gains haven’t just been about convenience, either. The reduced volume of cars has led to marked improvements in pollution and traffic safety for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. It also raised more than half a billion dollars for the city’s beleaguered public transportation system. 

Car centric cities are an idea that has failed.

Only 10 at a Time

Someone managed to get the number of robotaxis that Tesla is operating in Austin, and simultaneously operating vehicles could be counted without taking off your shoes.

Yep,fewer than 10 cars at a time. 

If Elon Musk is to be believed, millions of driverless Tesla Robotaxis are set to conquer the streets of America by next year.

Right now, however, his tiny fleet would be stretched thin covering a couple city blocks.

With Tesla remaining tight-lipped about how many self-driving cabs it has in operation, Texas A&M engineering student Ethan McKanna tells Electrek that he’s created an online tracker that keeps tabs on the automaker’s service in Austin, Texas by reverse-engineering its ride-hailing app. It shows that just 32 different Tesla Model Ys are currently operating as part of the Robotaxi network — and worse yet, most of the cars don’t even operate concurrently: the data suggests that fewer than ten robotaxis are giving rides at the same time.

This to me seems to be an indication that there are a small number people who are constantly monitoring the vehicles, and so they cannot scale at the rate that the Apartheid Era Emerald Heir Pedo Guy™ is claiming.

Elon Musk is a snollygoster.

A New Way to Monkey Wrench Waymo

Have you even shut a seat belt in the door or not closed the door firmly enough and gotten a door warning?

It turns out that Waymo semi-autonomous taxis has no way to shut its own doors, so the cab company is paying people $20 to rescue cars with doors that are ajar.

This is another way to protest the beta test of a 4,000 pound death machine on public streets.

Don Adkins was walking along the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles late one night this month when he heard a plea for help.

“Please close the right-side rear door, thanks,” Adkins recalled a synthetic voice calling out. It came from a Jaguar SUV stopped in the street with its lights flashing. One of the hundreds of Waymo robotaxis in Los Angeles operated by Alphabet was in trouble.

………

Adkins had witnessed an Achilles’ heel of the Waymo robotaxis that ferry thousands of riders in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities each week. The vehicles can navigate city streets and compete with taxi drivers without anyone behind the wheel — but become stranded if a human doesn’t close the door behind them at the end of a ride. 

Because riders and passersby can be unreliable, Waymo pays workers in Los Angeles $20 or more for rescuing a robotaxi by closing a door, summoning help through an app called Honk that is like an Uber for towing companies. 

 

There is Nothing that Private Equity Cannot Destroy

The latest victim is skateboarding.

Once PE is involved it's game over:

Are there any industries that simply cannot become corporatized, that align too closely to anti-establishment sensibilities to ever sell out? If I were to pick one, I’d start with the giant upturned middle finger that is skateboarding. The whole attraction to skate culture is tied up with its outsider, nonconformist spirit. When Steve Buscemi says, “How do you do, fellow kids?” in the famous meme about awkwardly co-opting youth subcultures, he’s literally holding a skateboard.

Yet something so quintessentially anti-corporate has been torched by private equity buyouts that destroyed both leading brands and the relationships that kept the scene thriving, cool, and local. The very structures that built skateboarding into a multibillion-dollar industry are withering in a sea of financially engineered acid.

………

The industry is currently dealing with this February’s bankruptcy of Liberated Brands, a conglomerate of numerous iconic skate and surf imprints (including Quiksilver, Billabong, Roxy, and RVCA) established after a 2023 rollup by Authentic Brands Group, owners of Reebok, Guess, Nautica, Aéropostale, Nine West, Juicy Couture, and more. Amid a series of private equity–fueled collapses afflicting the industry, the Liberated bankruptcy is the largest, resulting in over 1,000 layoffs and the shuttering of all its retail locations.

If these crashes came about because skaters simply rejected sellout brands, there would be a flicker of hope that the “fuck the man” ethos of skateboarding would pull through. But they seem mainly due to the familiar tactics private equity uses to extract value from companies and leave them as a desiccated shell. It raises the question of how skateboarding can go forward if every brand that gets a little success becomes a sitting duck for a financial vulture.

We really need to change whatever laws that allow these pirates to operate.