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Thanks for sharing! I think the problem is similar to that of delivery robots, the business model is capped by the hourly rate that a driver costs, and many aspects of a real driver are difficult to replace like keeping the car clean and sanitary, helping with luggage, and - most importantly - providing accountability. The latter will need to be absorbed by the companies themselves. There is a use case where autonomous taxis can be offered when and where people don't want to work, but these are really economical edge cases.

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Tesla has managed a clever solution to the accountability problem, which is to treat it like any other car feature. When they launch a proper taxi service that will have to change though

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"a pedestrian being dragged under a Cruise robotaxi and receiving significant injuries." - Well that is a scary thought if the sensors on the car don't pick up the disturbance and it just keeps going and going.

The concept is a tough ask, when a 1% error rate is extremely impressive from a technological standpoint but horrible from a safety standpoint.

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Yeah which makes Waymo's record all the more impressive IMO

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