Tesla has actually said a robotaxi service is one of the main goals.   Presumably they believe they can decide on pickup/dropoff spots without mapping them -- which is actually a more credible claim because you see them up close, while driving at speed with no map requires mapping the road quickly at long distances.

This is a common opinion, but any car that imagines it can make a map while it drives can also make a map incredibly cheaply.     If you think you can get halfway to driving without a map, you can make maps scale just fine.   You still have to deal with a map that’s out of date, but only very rarely, unlike a car that…

This has been discussed extensively for a long time. Charging is best done slowly at night, so chargers need to go where people park cars overnight — homes, hotels, apartment parking lots and some curbs — though office parking lots also work for those who can’t charge at home.

I am disappointed in the maps team.   Google has data on the flow of cars over every road going back a decade.   It has weather data.   It can note what roads rarely get any traffic, or what roads get zero or extremely slow traffic in bad weather, and when it finds such roads are the only route it can say, “Sections…

As you said, “except for a Tesla.” Tesla’s charging network is large and reliable, though it needs more in a few areas. Tesla drivers regularly have long road trips with minimal issues.  You can buy the CHAdeMO adapter to get the benefit of both networks, but the Tesla network is your first choice and the adapter…

Not a great choice.    You almost always want a meal at a supercharger, and the food quality varies.  Harris Ranch isn’t bad per se, but it’s the only choice there -- a more expensive sit-down restaurant for a long meal, or an OK quick counter, but that’s it.   You really want more.

The author gets it right that robocars are not inherently safer than human driving, but that’s not what any smart person said.

One piece of math left to do.   How much extra energy does it take to air condition the car if you leave it out in the sun rather than park it in the shade?

Talk about a headline to “jam up” people.   This is not the “industry.”  The article, written by a non-expert, refers to an “official” saying this ridiculous thing, but doesn’t name the official or why anybody would listen to him.  He puts in quotes from Rosekind, who would not say this sort of thing, but does not…