cross-posted from: https://fedia.io/m/[email protected]/t/2358847
Imagine a taxi that can’t operate in the rain. That is what Tesla has delivered in Austin TX.
These riders learned that the hard way, but don’t have anything particularly negative to say about it… That’s the advantage of only making a Robotaxi service available to hand-picked Tesla influencers.
Well, sort of!
The reason almost everyone starts in Phoenix AZ is partially the lack of rain. It’s also a friendly regulatory environment and a dead-simple street grid structure.
Austin TX gets as much rain as, say, Chicago IL, neither is particularly dry. And Atlanta GA is very, very rainy. On paper it actually gets more rain than Seattle WA.
FWIW, LiDAR based autonomous vehicles have figured this out, Waymo can handle all but the heaviest rain (which, TBF, humans also cannot reliably handle)
Yeah it’s a huge disadvantage for Tesla people have been pointing out since they ditched Lidar.