Latest news with #JohnKrafcik
Time of India
a day ago
- Automotive
- Time of India
Former CEO of Google-owned Waymo says Elon Musk's Tesla Robotaxi is ‘not a robotaxi if…'
John Krafcik, the former CEO of Waymo who turned 's self-driving car project into a commercial ride-hailing business, has raised doubts about Tesla's Robotaxi. Speaking to Business Insider, Krafcik questioned whether Tesla's service qualifies as a true robotaxi. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "If they were striving to re-create today's Bay Area Uber experience," he told the publication over email, adding "looks like they've absolutely nailed it." For those unaware, Tesla launched its Robotaxi service in Austin in June this year, followed by San Francisco in July. In Austin, where rules are looser, Tesla places a safety monitor in the passenger seat instead of the driver's seat. Also, a human safety driver sits behind the wheel because Tesla has not yet applied for California permits to test or deploy fully driverless vehicles. The service is currently invite-only, though CEO Elon Musk said on August 10 that it will be 'open access' next month. Krafcik said Tesla's reliance on in-car employees shows that the service is not truly autonomous. 'Please let me know when Tesla launches a robotaxi — I'm still waiting,' he said. 'It's (rather obviously) not a robotaxi if there's an employee inside the car.' He further stated that he has no interest in trying Tesla's robotaxi services. Krafcik added that he has no interest in trying the service himself. Tesla Robotaxi similar to Waymo's early approach: Report According to the Business Insider report, Tesla's rollout has similarities to Waymo's early days. In 2017, Waymo launched an 'early rider program' in Arizona, where safety drivers were present and participants signed nondisclosure agreements. By late 2020, Waymo began offering fully driverless paid rides in Phoenix and has since expanded to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, with more than 1,500 robotaxis operatin
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Business Insider
Waymo's former CEO is not impressed with Tesla's Robotaxi
John Krafcik, the man who led Waymo's path from a research project to a commercial autonomous ride-hailing business, is skeptical about Tesla's Robotaxi. Business Insider sought the former Waymo CEO's thoughts on Tesla's Robotaxi Bay Area launch. Krafcik led Waymo from 2015 to 2021. He now sits on the board for Rivian, a Tesla rival in the electric vehicle space. "If they were striving to re-create today's Bay Area Uber experience," he told Business Insider over email, "looks like they've absolutely nailed it." Tesla rolled out a ride-hailing service in the San Francisco Bay Area in July, about a month after it began its pilot of Robotaxi. A human safety monitor sits behind the steering wheel since Tesla has yet to apply for permits that would allow the company to test and deploy fully driverless taxis in California. The service remains invite-only. CEO Elon Musk said on August 10 that Tesla's Robotaxi will be "open access" by next month. In Austin, where rules around autonomous vehicle deployment are less stringent, a human safety monitor sits in the front passenger seat of the Model Y. For Krafcik, the presence of an employee inside the car is proof that Tesla has yet to show off a real robotaxi service. "Please let me know when Tesla launches a robotaxi — I'm still waiting," he told Business Insider. "It's (rather obviously) not a robotaxi if there's an employee inside the car." Krafcik told Business Insider he has no interest in trying Tesla's Robotaxi. Waymo's initial rollout in 2017 shared a few similarities to Tesla's Robotaxi launch. At the time, Waymo began what it called an " early rider program" in Arizona, allowing a select group of people to try the company's service. Safety drivers were present in the cars, and riders were temporarily put under a nondisclosure agreement. While there's no industry standard definition of a robot taxi, the Society of Automotive Engineers outlines six levels of autonomous driving, ranging from 0 to 6. The SAE taxonomy defines Level 4 and Level 5 as autonomous driving that does not require a human to physically take over the wheel when requested. Business Insider reported in May that Tesla has yet to use a permit that allows testing for cars that are Level 3 and above. It's not yet clear if Tesla's Robotaxi in the Bay Area would be considered Level 3, which only requires a driver to take over the vehicle when the autonomous driving system requests an intervention. Waymo began offering fully driverless paid rides in Phoenix near the end of 2020 and has since expanded the service in several US cities, including SF, Los Angeles, and Austin, with more than 1,500 robotaxis on the road. In 2019, when Waymo had a program that allowed select members of the public to try the service with a safety driver in the car, two riders told Business Insider at the time that the rides were nearly flawless but encountered several situations where the safety driver had to intervene.
Indian Express
22-06-2025
- Automotive
- Indian Express
How is Tesla expected to remotely control its robotaxis, and what are its limitations?
Tesla is expected to tiptoe into its long-awaited robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, as soon as Sunday with about 10 of its Model Y SUVs that will operate within strict limits. CEO Elon Musk has said the company is being 'super paranoid' about safety and that humans will remotely monitor the fleet. Remote access and control – known in the industry as 'teleoperation' – is used in varying degrees by the handful of robotaxi startups operating around the globe. The technology has clear advantages and important limitations. Here are some details of how it works: Teleoperation is the control of machines by humans in a different location, usually over a wireless network. It is used to train robots to operate autonomously, monitor their autonomous activity, and take over when required. The global robotaxi industry is still in test mode, as companies deploy the vehicles in limited geographic areas and continually adjust the artificial intelligence software that controls them. Teleoperation is often used to intervene when a vehicle is unsure of what to do. Alphabet's Waymo, for example, has a team of human 'fleet response' agents who respond to questions from the Waymo Driver – its bot. 'Much like phone-a-friend, when the Waymo vehicle encounters a particular situation on the road, the autonomous driver can reach out to a human fleet response agent for additional information,' Waymo said in a blog post last year. Former Waymo CEO John Krafcik told Reuters, 'the cars aren't being actively monitored,' adding that the software is 'the ultimate decision-maker.' A Waymo video shows a car asking a remote operator whether a street with emergency response vehicles is open to traffic. When the human says yes, the vehicle proceeds. In contrast, other companies, such as Baidu's Apollo Go in China, have used fully remote backup drivers who can step in to virtually drive the vehicles. Baidu declined to comment. Driving vehicles remotely on public roads has a major potential problem: it relies on cellular data connections that can drop or operate with a lag, disconnecting the vehicle from the remote driver in dangerous situations. Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University engineering professor and autonomous-vehicle safety expert, said that approach could work for a small test deployment of 10 vehicles, such as Tesla's initial effort in Austin, but he called teleoperation 'inherently unreliable technology.' 'Eventually you will lose connection at exactly the worst time,' he said. 'If they've done their homework, this won't ever happen for 10 cars. With a million cars, it's going to happen every day.' Former Waymo CEO Krafcik agreed, adding that the time delay in cell signal makes remote driving 'very risky.' On the other hand, relying on the vehicle to reach out for help and allowing the vehicle to be the decision-maker are risky as well, Koopman said, as it does not guarantee the vehicle will make the right decision. Waymo declined to comment on the limitations of its approach. Koopman also noted there are limits to how many vehicles one person can safely monitor. A group of Democratic Texas lawmakers asked Tesla on Wednesday to delay its robotaxi launch until September, when a new autonomous-driving law is scheduled to take effect. The Austin-area lawmakers said in a letter that delaying the launch 'is in the best interest of both public safety and building public trust in Tesla's operations.' Musk for years has promised, without delivering, that its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) advanced driver assistance software would graduate to completely self-driving and control robotaxis. This year, he said Tesla would roll out a paid service in Austin underpinned by an 'unsupervised' version of the software. 'Teslas will be in the wild, with no one in them, in June, in Austin,' Musk told analysts and investors in January. In May, he told CNBC that the robotaxi would only operate in parts of Austin that are safe for it, would avoid difficult intersections, and would use humans to monitor the vehicles. What those teleoperators will do is not clear. For years inside Tesla, company executives have expected to use teleoperators who could take over in case of trouble, said one person familiar with the matter. For instance, if a robotaxi were stuck in a crowded pedestrian area and confused about what to do next, a human teleoperator could take over and guide it, the source said. Tesla advertised for teleoperation positions, saying the company needs the ability to 'access and control' autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots remotely. Such employees can 'remotely perform complex and intricate tasks,' it said in the advertisements. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. 'We are being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift,' Musk said in a post on X last week while providing a tentative launch date of June 22.
TimesLIVE
20-06-2025
- Automotive
- TimesLIVE
How Tesla plans to remotely operate its robotaxis — and where the limits lie
Tesla is expected to tiptoe into its long-awaited robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, as soon as Sunday with about 10 of its Model Y SUVs that will operate within strict limits. CEO Elon Musk has said the company is being 'super paranoid' about safety and that humans will remotely monitor the fleet. Remote access and control — known in the industry as 'teleoperation' — is used in varying degrees by the handful of robotaxi start-ups operating around the globe. The technology has clear advantages and important limitations. Here are some details of how it works: What is teleoperation? Teleoperation is the control of machines by humans in a different location, usually over a wireless network. It is used to train robots to operate autonomously, monitor their autonomous activity and take over when required. How do robotaxi operators use teleoperation? The global robotaxi industry is still in test mode, as companies deploy the vehicles in limited geographic areas and continually adjust the artificial intelligence software that controls them. Teleoperation is often used to intervene when a vehicle is unsure of what to do. Alphabet's Waymo, for example, has a team of human 'fleet response' agents who respond to questions from the Waymo Driver — its bot. 'Much like phone-a-friend, when the Waymo vehicle encounters a particular situation on the road, the autonomous driver can reach out to a human fleet response agent for additional information,' Waymo said in a blog post last year. Former Waymo CEO John Krafcik told Reuters, 'the cars aren't being actively monitored,' adding that the software is 'the ultimate decisionmaker'. A Waymo video shows a car asking a remote operator whether a street with emergency response vehicles is open to traffic. When the human says yes, the vehicle proceeds. In contrast, other companies, such as Baidu's Apollo Go in China, have used fully remote backup drivers who can step in to virtually drive the vehicles. Baidu declined to comment. What are the limitations? Driving vehicles remotely on public roads has a major potential problem: it relies on cellular data connections that can drop or operate with a lag, disconnecting the vehicle from the remote driver in dangerous situations. Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University engineering professor and autonomous-vehicle safety expert, said that approach could work for a small test deployment of 10 vehicles, such as Tesla's initial effort in Austin, but he called teleoperation 'inherently unreliable technology'. 'Eventually you will lose connection at exactly the worst time,' he said. 'If they've done their homework, this won't ever happen for 10 cars. With a million cars, it's going to happen every day.' Former Waymo CEO Krafcik agreed, adding that the time delay in cell signal makes remote driving 'very risky'. On the other hand, relying on the vehicle to reach out for help and allowing the vehicle to be the decisionmaker are risky as well, Koopman said, as it does not guarantee the vehicle will make the right decision. Waymo declined to comment on the limitations of its approach. Koopman also noted there are limits to how many vehicles one person can safely monitor. A group of Democratic Texas legislators asked Tesla on Wednesday to delay its robotaxi launch until September, when a new autonomous-driving law is scheduled to take effect. The Austin-area legislators said in a letter that delaying the launch 'is in the best interest of both public safety and building public trust in Tesla's operations'. What is Tesla's approach? Musk for years has promised, without delivering, that its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) advanced driver assistance software would graduate to completely self-driving and control robotaxis. This year, he said Tesla would roll out a paid service in Austin underpinned by an 'unsupervised' version of the software. 'Teslas will be in the wild, with no one in them, in June, in Austin,' Musk told analysts and investors in January. In May, he told CNBC the robotaxi would only operate in parts of Austin that are safe for it, would avoid difficult intersections, and would use humans to monitor the vehicles. What those teleoperators will do is not clear. For years inside Tesla, company executives have expected to use teleoperators who could take over in case of trouble, said one person familiar with the matter. For instance, if a robotaxi were stuck in a crowded pedestrian area and confused about what to do next, a human teleoperator could take over and guide it, the source said. Tesla advertised for teleoperation positions, saying the company needs the ability to 'access and control' autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots remotely. Such employees can 'remotely perform complex and intricate tasks', it said in the advertisements. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
Time of India
20-06-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
How is Tesla expected to remotely control its robotaxis, and what are its limitations?
Tesla is expected to tiptoe into its long-awaited robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, as soon as Sunday with about 10 of its Model Y SUVs that will operate within strict limits. CEO Elon Musk has said the company is being "super paranoid" about safety and that humans will remotely monitor the fleet. Remote access and control - known in the industry as " teleoperation " - is used in varying degrees by the handful of robotaxi startups operating around the globe. The technology has clear advantages and important limitations. Here are some details of how it works: WHAT IS TELEOPERATION? Teleoperation is the control of machines by humans in a different location, usually over a wireless network. It is used to train robots to operate autonomously, monitor their autonomous activity, and take over when required. HOW DO ROBOTAXI OPERATORS USE TELEOPERATION? The global robotaxi industry is still in test mode, as companies deploy the vehicles in limited geographic areas and continually adjust the artificial intelligence software that controls them. Teleoperation is often used to intervene when a vehicle is unsure of what to do. Alphabet's Waymo, for example, has a team of human "fleet response" agents who respond to questions from the Waymo Driver - its bot. "Much like phone-a-friend, when the Waymo vehicle encounters a particular situation on the road, the autonomous driver can reach out to a human fleet response agent for additional information," Waymo said in a blog post last year. Former Waymo CEO John Krafcik told Reuters, "the cars aren't being actively monitored," adding that the software is "the ultimate decision-maker." A Waymo video shows a car asking a remote operator whether a street with emergency response vehicles is open to traffic. When the human says yes, the vehicle proceeds. In contrast, other companies, such as Baidu's Apollo Go in China, have used fully remote backup drivers who can step in to virtually drive the vehicles. Baidu declined to comment. WHAT ARE THE LIMITATIONS? Driving vehicles remotely on public roads has a major potential problem: it relies on cellular data connections that can drop or operate with a lag, disconnecting the vehicle from the remote driver in dangerous situations. Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University engineering professor and autonomous-vehicle safety expert, said that approach could work for a small test deployment of 10 vehicles, such as Tesla's initial effort in Austin, but he called teleoperation "inherently unreliable technology." "Eventually you will lose connection at exactly the worst time," he said. "If they've done their homework, this won't ever happen for 10 cars. With a million cars, it's going to happen every day." Former Waymo CEO Krafcik agreed, adding that the time delay in cell signal makes remote driving "very risky." On the other hand, relying on the vehicle to reach out for help and allowing the vehicle to be the decision-maker are risky as well, Koopman said, as it does not guarantee the vehicle will make the right decision. Waymo declined to comment on the limitations of its approach. Koopman also noted there are limits to how many vehicles one person can safely monitor. A group of Democratic Texas lawmakers asked Tesla on Wednesday to delay its robotaxi launch until September, when a new autonomous-driving law is scheduled to take effect. The Austin-area lawmakers said in a letter that delaying the launch "is in the best interest of both public safety and building public trust in Tesla's operations." WHAT IS TESLA'S APPROACH? Musk for years has promised, without delivering, that its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) advanced driver assistance software would graduate to completely self-driving and control robotaxis . This year, he said Tesla would roll out a paid service in Austin underpinned by an "unsupervised" version of the software. "Teslas will be in the wild, with no one in them, in June, in Austin," Musk told analysts and investors in January. In May, he told CNBC that the robotaxi would only operate in parts of Austin that are safe for it, would avoid difficult intersections, and would use humans to monitor the vehicles. What those teleoperators will do is not clear. For years inside Tesla, company executives have expected to use teleoperators who could take over in case of trouble, said one person familiar with the matter. For instance, if a robotaxi were stuck in a crowded pedestrian area and confused about what to do next, a human teleoperator could take over and guide it, the source said. Tesla advertised for teleoperation positions, saying the company needs the ability to "access and control" autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots remotely. Such employees can "remotely perform complex and intricate tasks," it said in the advertisements. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. "We are being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift," Musk said in a post on X last week while providing a tentative launch date of June 22.
