Tesla introduced its robotaxis – which are already operated by ride-sharing companies like Uber and Waymo – on Sunday in Austin, Texas. Although it is not the first to offer autonomous cabs, anything Tesla does for the first time seems to attract enormous attention.
In reality, robotaxis have been around for quite a while. Beginning in 2004, the DARPA Grand Challenge, an autonomous vehicle competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense, kickstarted the entire industry. Since then, cities across the world have become interested in robotaxis. In 2024, IDTechEx recorded nearly 100 unique combinations of robotaxi companies active in different cities. These range from short trials with the technology to full commercial services where customers can pay to ride in a self-driving car with no safety driver present.
China and the U.S. are the hotspots for robotaxi development. Between the two, there are more than 30 cities engaged in robotaxi testing, more than the rest of the world combined.
Sunday’s rollout was limited to a small area in South Austin deemed to be the safest driving area in the city.
The rollout came the day after Tess and I returned from a vacation to New York City, where we relied on Uber and Lyft to provide transportation on trips where the subway was too much of a hassle or not available, LaGuardia airport being an example of the latter.
With that experience fresh in mind, I cannot imagine a successful robotaxi service operating in NYC.
The old slogan, “if you can make it in (New York) you can make it anywhere” applies here. I don’t see how driverless cabs could make it in a city where abiding by the rules of the road is routinely ignored. An automobile that hesitates even for a second or allows a gap of a few inches sets off a cacophony of blasting horns and shouted expletives. Weaving in and out, even crossing into the oncoming traffic, is accepted and encouraged. In a city where it takes 12 minutes to travel a mile by car during business hours, there is no patience for dawdling. Every inch, every fraction of a second, is grimly contested. This characterization of New York cabbies is neither a cliche nor a stereotype.
I am a cautious driver, so I’d fail miserably as a taxi driver. Tess, however, would take to it like a duck to water. She drives as if it’s a competition.
The whole premise of autonomous cars is flawed when applied to taxi service in New York, where all of the years of testing, tinkering and modifications to ensure that autonomous vehicles adhere to safety rules are antithetical. In fact, any car that dares follow those rules had better be driverless. A real driver would likely get punched in the nose at some point.
As is, the development of driverless cars has been a pretty large exercise in trial and error – lots of errors. Between 2019 and 2024, there were 3,979 reported incidents involving driverless autos.
The amount of data that has to be collected and written in the software to address a broad spectrum of possible circumstances has to be incredibly large.
Properly facilitating a seamless entry into the world of New York driving would require ditching a lot of those practices (say, maintaining proper distances from other cars or staying in the appropriate lane at all times).
In their place, software would have to be introduced that suited New York driving, which would include a means of broadcasting swear words and incessant horn blowing to signal displeasure with any safe driving it encounters. It would have to know when to run up on curbs, scrape bumpers, dash into oncoming traffic, roll through traffic signals and defy pedestrians who might be tempted to cross its path.
Maybe someday there will be a robotaxi that would be able to assimilate to New York driving, although frankly, I don’t see how. It’s like writing rules for rule-breakers. Only in New York is careful driving considered to be a menace.
I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
