Most Impressive Part of the Tesla Model 3…The Super Bottle
Yes, the super bottle. That's the opinion of Sandy Munro of Munro & Associates who called the super bottle "the best thing in the whole damned car." In this hour long interview by Sean Mitchell, Sandy Munro describes the Model 3 super bottle near the 47 minute 55...
Is the Tesla No Sale / No Service Law in Michigan About to Change?
Bloomberg is reporting today that Tesla has reached a settlement with the state of Michigan concerning the company's federal lawsuit challenging the ban on direct-to-consumer vehicle sales. An announcement could come as soon as tomorrow. In Michigan, Tesla operates...
A New Self-Driving GM Cruise Vehicle
Last week I speculated that GM Cruise Automation was close to announcing a robotaxi service given the company announcement of hiring their first chief communications officer, Kristine Boyden. Well, it seems that the Cruise announcement later today is one where the...
Is Lidar Essential for Self-Driving Cars?
I’ve tackled this question in a number of posts by highlighting Elon Musk’s view that the usage of lidar is an unnecessary crutch on the path to self-driving vehicles. During an interesting Artificial Intelligence podcast with Lex Fridman (July 22, 2019), Chris Urmson...
Intel’s Mobileye, Entering the Robotaxi Service Business?
In a recent post, I described how Intel subsidiary, Mobileye, showcased a self-driving vehicle equipped with only cameras traversing the streets of Jerusalem during CES this year. Is Mobileye about to take on Waymo in the rotbotaxi service game? Mobileye’s CEO, Annan...
Is GM Cruise Automation Ready to Launch?
In a previous post, we learned that GM Cruise Automation was delaying the deployment of its autonomous taxi service beyond the end of 2019. Might the information this week from PR Week be a sign that GM Cruise is now close to launching its self-driving service? The...
Full Disclosure: I Own TaaS Stocks
In the spirit of transparency, I do own shares of stocks of some companies mentioned by me within TaaS Master that are also in the transportations-as-a-service space. You may recall from a previous post that the ecosystem of autonomous companies is large and growing....
Deep Learning for Waymo is Icing on the Cake…for Tesla, It Is the Cake!
Lex Fridman (@lexfridman) conducts research in human-centered artificial intelligence, deep learning, autonomous vehicles and robotics at MIT. During a presentation on the state of deep learning in 2020, Fridman compares the benefits and drawbacks of Waymo’s approach...
Is Lidar Unecessary? More Evidence that Musk Might Be Right.
In a previous post, I discussed Elon Musk’s view that the usage of lidar in autonomous vehicle applications is a “fools errand.” Musk believes that radar, cameras, ultrasonic sensors and neural networks are all that’s needed to make self-driving vehicles function...
Is Tesla a $4000 Stock?
Friday, Tesla’s stock price ended the day at $329.94 per share. On June 3, 2019 Tesla’s stock was $178.97. Friday’s price represents an 84% stock price gain since June 3. In October of this year, Ark Investment founder and CEO, Katherine Wood, predicted a rise in...