San Francisco / Bay Area Robotaxi service launches! Service area dwarfs Waymo's

[Administrator]

 

[stumby]

Yesss! Someone put together this map comparing Tesla's geofenced service area vs. Waymo's showing how much bigger Tesla's is

 

[HaulingAss]

Wow! First they launch in Austin with a boner and now in SF with a big gaping pussy!

I wonder what Las Vegas will be! A butthole? Boobs?

 

[tingmo13]

as a long term T$LA holder I want all AVs to succeed to donkey kick ICE, dirty fossil fuels, dealer/stealerships, insurance companies so that people do not have to work 24/7 and live a better lives.

 

[Iliya @ TWRAPS]

Bugger, they didn't cover East Bay... I was hoping the map would be more like this...

 

[ModelAZ]

Here's a comparison between the Tesla robotaxi geofenced service area and Waymo's. Not even close!

 

[ModelAZ]

Tesla’s Bay Area Robotaxi geofence area is really big. From end-to-end it takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes, and that’s with using the highway and no traffic.

 

[CyberTrk]

Here's a comparison between the Tesla robotaxi geofenced service area and Waymo's. Not even close!

Difficult to compare because Waymo is autonomous
while Tesla is Supervised with a driver sitting in front of the steering wheel.

 

[EMoeller]

Most here are Tesla owners so you already have a Tesla account and an app for your car. To pre-sign up for Robotaxi (in either location) go to www.tesla.com/Robotaxi and complete the form. If selected for the Beta Program in SF (which is NOT yet available as permits have not been issued) your Tesla phone app will display a banner advising you.

It will be a while folks...

 

[CyberTrk]

Most here are Tesla owners so you already have a Tesla account and an app for your car. To pre-sign up for Robotaxi (in either location) go to www.tesla.com/Robotaxi and complete the form. If selected for the Beta Program in SF (which is NOT yet available as permits have not been issued) your Tesla phone app will display a banner advising you.

It will be a while folks...

Does the App works also on Android or only on iOS?

 

[HaulingAss]

Difficult to compare because Waymo is autonomous
while Tesla is Supervised with a driver sitting in front of the steering wheel.

Why does that make it difficult to compare?

Waymo isn't very autonomous either, with every car being supervised remotely. It's just a matter of proving to regulators they don't need human supervision. Neither of these things increases the difficulty of comparing the two.

 

[HaulingAss]

Most here are Tesla owners so you already have a Tesla account and an app for your car. To pre-sign up for Robotaxi (in either location) go to www.tesla.com/Robotaxi and complete the form. If selected for the Beta Program in SF (which is NOT yet available as permits have not been issued) your Tesla phone app will display a banner advising you.

It will be a while folks...

What do you think "a while" means? Months, Years? Or days or weeks?

 

[ModelAZ]

As expected, Tesla’s Model Y ride-hailing service in the Bay Area currently has a safety driver in the driver’s seat, which is why Tesla is calling it a ride-hailing service rather than a Robotaxi service. It is still a paid service though and is likely using the same software as the Austin Robotaxis. Once Tesla receives the required permit, they will remove the safety driver and instead have a safety monitor in the passenger seat like they do in Austin. That could happen within the next 1–2 months, according to Elon.

 

[CyberTrk]

Tesla’s Bay Area Robotaxi geofence area is really big. From end-to-end it takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes, and that’s with using the highway and no traffic.

I drive from San Francisco to San Jose back and force every day,
and around 8 am or 7 pm when using FSD I often get the
"Red Steering Wheel from Hell" because of the sun on the horizon
is very low and is facing the windshield camera, forcing me
to take over because FSD was shutting down.
This occurs also when driving North or South when the sun
is low on the horizon and is facing a side B-pillar camera.
I wonder what would happen with Robotaxi is this situation,
especially if another vehicle is following very closely?
I believe the Robotaxi will not initially use the freeway
which mitigate a little bit the risk of high speed shutdown
but this is still somehow worrisome.

 

[HaulingAss]

I drive from San Francisco to San Jose back and force every day,
and around 8 am or 7 pm when using FSD I often get the
"Red Steering Wheel from Hell" because of the sun on the horizon
is very low and is facing the windshield camera, forcing me
to take over because FSD was shutting down.
This occurs also when driving North or South when the sun
is low on the horizon and is facing a side B-pillar camera.
I wonder what would happen with Robotaxi is this situation,
especially if another vehicle is following very closely?
I believe the Robotaxi will not initially use the freeway
which mitigate a little bit the risk of high speed shutdown
but this is still somehow worrisome.

Robotaxis will prioritize clean camera binnacles. A film builds up on both the camera lenses and the glass behind the binnacle cover. With clean cameras, FSD can drive directly into the sun better than I can.

The thing people think are limitations (driving into the sun, dark nights, heavy rain, etc), FSD can do better than people. Because the cameras have much more ISO brightness range. They can handle brighter light AND dimmer light. And in low contrast conditions, the software can boost contrast to better discern the scene compared to a human. But, just like drivers have to keep their glasses clean, robocabs do too.