Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson doesn't think Tesla will launch a robotaxi service in California (or anywhere else) next year, despite what Elon Musk recently claimed.
The “basic problem is that they don't have technology that works,” Levinson said Wednesday at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “And by works, I want to differentiate between a driver assistance system that drives most of the time, except when it's not working.” , and then you have to take management, facing a system that is so reliable and solid that you don't need a person in it.”
Levinson went further and specifically pointed out Tesla's decision to rely solely on cameras to support its driver assistance system. “Our perspective is that it really takes a lot more {hardware} than what Tesla is putting into its vehicles to build a robotaxi that is not only as safe, but especially safer than a human,” he said.
Levinson's comments come just weeks after Musk revealed Tesla's prototype robotaxi called “Cybercab.” Musk also announced at the Cybercab event that Tesla wants to start allowing Mannequin 3 sedans and Mannequin Y SUVs to operate as robotaxis in California and Texas by the end of 2025.
Levinson said he uses Tesla's full (supervised) autonomous driving software “every two weeks.” And while he called it “awesome,” he also said he finds it “a little stressful.”
“Usually, it does the right thing, and then it lulls you into a false sense of complacency, and then it does the wrong thing,” he said. 'You're like, 'Oh my God!'”
Levinson went on to say that he believes the FSD is “about 100 times less secure than a human if you look at all the metrics that are publicly available.” (Tesla releases quarterly safety reports claiming that its driver assistance has fewer crashes than cars without it, although these self-reported statistics have been criticized as selective.)
The comments about Tesla came as Levinson announced that Zoox will launch its custom robotaxi in the San Francisco and Las Vegas markets in the coming weeks. The company plans to make them available to an early user program in 2025.