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Tesla ‘Robotaxis’ are not crashing because they are not running

1 week 4 days ago

Tesla didn’t report a single at-fault “Robotaxi” crash in the latest NHTSA autonomous-vehicle data — its only fresh incident was a Model Y getting rear-ended while stopped, clearly the other driver’s fault.

That sounds like good news for Tesla’s safety record. But live fleet data points to the real reason the crashes have dried up: Tesla’s robotaxis are barely running, and the active fleet is shrinking a year into the program.

Fred Lambert

Ex-Tesla exec builds the home heat pump Tesla gave up for robots

1 week 4 days ago

Drew Baglino spent nearly two decades building Tesla’s batteries, motors, and power electronics. Now the former Tesla SVP is quietly building the one home energy product Tesla talked up for years and never shipped: a residential heat pump.

His startup, Sadi Thermal Machines, is a direct bet on an idea Tesla floated openly in 2022 — before the company reoriented itself around humanoid robots and robotaxis.

Fred Lambert

Baidu Apollo Go wins Level 4 robotaxi approval in Switzerland as AmiGo

1 week 4 days ago

Baidu’s Apollo Go has received a Level 4 autonomous driving permit in Switzerland for AmiGo, a robotaxi service it is running with Swiss Post’s PostBus, putting the Chinese tech giant ahead of Waymo and Tesla in deploying driverless vehicles into European public transport.

The Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) special permit covers an 80 km² service area across three eastern cantons, and Baidu says the project is on track to become the largest planned automated public transport operation of its kind in Europe.

Fred Lambert

Who killed the lightweight commuter e-bike?

1 week 4 days ago

There was a time, not all that long ago, when the electric bicycle industry seemed headed in a very different direction. The promise of the e-bike was elegantly simple: take a normal bicycle and make it easier. Easier to commute, easier to climb hills, easier to ride farther without arriving sweaty, and easier to replace car trips.

Micah Toll