Anger Management
Tesla CEO Elon Musk — not known for his thick skin — has fired back at a fellow tech executive who had the gall to criticize the automaker’s self-driving technology.
On Wednesday, Jesse Levinson, cofounder and CTO of the robotaxi company Zoox, dismissed the idea that Tesla could launch its own driverless robotaxi service next year.
The “fundamental issue is they don’t have technology that works,” Levinson said at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 conference, as quoted by the news site.
“And by works, I want to differentiate between a driver assistance system that drives most of the time — except when it doesn’t, and then you have to take over — versus a system that’s so reliable and robust that you don’t need a person in it,” he added.
Musk had a below-the-belt rejoinder.
“If he hadn’t gotten bailed out by Amazon, his company would be dead already,” Musk wrote in a tweet responding to the comments.
New Kid in Town
Zoox was indeed bought out by Amazon in 2020. It hasn’t generated the same levels of hype as the likes of Tesla and Waymo, but it has seemingly made big strides in the years since, with its vehicles logging 22 million miles.
In San Francisco and Las Vegas, the company expects to start giving driverless rides in the coming weeks, according to Levinson. It will use its toaster-shaped and unorthodox four-seater cars that feature no driver’s seat, no steering wheel, and no pedals.
Seemingly a rite of passage for any self-driving company, Zoox was recently under investigation by the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration after two of its test vehicles — different from the robotaxis it will be deploying — suddenly braked and injured motorcyclists.
Nothing has come of that probe yet, however, and it hasn’t stopped Zoox from obtaining regulatory approval to test its cars in more cities across the US.
Glass Houses
With that rundown out of the way, it’s telling that Musk didn’t have any other material to clap back with.
After unveiling Tesla’s long-awaited robotaxi at a hugely hyped event earlier this month, it became apparent that the automaker didn’t have a lot of meaningful insight to share on the vehicle’s progress, with many investors doubting Musk’s heavily hedged promise that the vehicle would “probably” enter production in 2026.
Tesla’s struggling semi-autonomous driving efforts have been in a rut for years now, with both Full Self-Driving and Autopilot being the center of countless lawsuits and investigations. Neither system has surpassed Level 2 autonomous driving capabilities, meaning they still require humans to take over, as Levinson alluded to.
Zoox, meanwhile, is rolling out cars with at least Level 3 autonomy.
Need we say more? Well, here’s another zinger: as Electrek‘s Fred Lambert pointed out, Tesla was once bailed out by another company, too. Ouch.
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