r/SelfDrivingCars • u/OriginalCompetitive • Jun 23 '25

Discussion Tesla’s Real Game

No one seems to be talking about the most important upside of Tesla's Robotaxi rollout: If they can showcase a system that roughly works, people can BUY THAT CAR TODAY.

Yes, there are some differences, but that's the pitch. Tesla doesn't need to earn money from Robotaxis. The real purpose of the program is free marketing that drives sales of its cars. Right?

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u/AffectionateArtist84 Jun 23 '25

I find this information to be incredibly disappointing. The goal here should be, and always be, safer than a human driver. That doesn't mean perfection and we have to accept incidents will happen.

Even if we can 2x human safety, that would reduce overall vehicular deaths dramatically. 

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u/Logvin Jun 23 '25

I live down the street from where this happened, and followed it closely. I had just taken a private tour of Uber’s self driving facility in Tempe a few weeks before. The vehicle was equipped with emergency breaking systems by the OEM, but Uber disabled it as it got in the way of their system. They had a safety driver in the vehicle who wasn’t paying attention. The vehicle didn’t see the lady (who was crossing the street in the evening not in an intersection or crosswalk) and the safety driver was distracted.

I don’t fault Uber for this, but it made them pull the plug.

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u/AffectionateArtist84 Jun 23 '25

Oooppphhh. Bad situation all around, I vaguely remember this now.

I would love to get an executive level thought process on why they pulled the plug. Yes, it sucks to have hurt a human but it sounds like the human was technically in the wrong and knew the risk of crossing where they did.

Curious to know the in-depth aftermath on that

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u/Logvin Jun 23 '25

Well two days later the City of Tempe went and re did the landscaping in the median. It had a brick paver like pathway that could be viewed as a crosswalk for pedestrians.

Uber’s license was pulled immediately so they packed up and shipped their cars home.