In California, self-driving cars are immune to traffic tickets
Anyone living in San Francisco knows that the city has been a testing ground for hundreds of self-driving cars – and there is probably a good reason why. In light of a series of incidents, including a pedestrian who was seriously injured by a Cruise robotaxi last year, California law enforcement has its hands tied when it comes to issuing moving violations when no human is behind the wheel.
Currently, California law enforcement can only write traffic tickets to humans, not robots, meaning that autonomous vehicles operating in a driverless mode are only susceptible to parking tickets.
Now, as Cruise is in hot water for allegations that it misled the California Department of Motor Vehicles regarding the incident where a pedestrian got seriously injured, residents and activists are calling for tighter laws and new watchdogs, reports NBC.
Waymo had said that it has a permit to operate 250 robotaxis in San Francisco, and that it deploys about 100 of them at any one time, according to NPR. Cruise, which has stopped all services after the pedestrian incident, had run 100 cars in San Francisco and about 300 at night.
While autonomous vehicle makers argue that their cars won’t get better without logging in real-time hours behind the wheel, safety concerns of course abound. SFGate wrote back in August that the local fire department had logged almost 60 reports of “driverless AVs impeding their activities,” including an incident when firefighters had to smash the window of a Cruise car to stop it from running over a firehose.
“I think all of us are still struggling to understand whether [driverless cars] really are safer than human drivers and in what ways they might not be,” Irina Raicu, the director of the Internet Ethics program at Santa Clara University, told NBC. “It seems like while they make fewer of the kind of mistakes that we see from human drivers, they make interesting new kinds of mistakes.”
Tesla’s home state of Texas, however, does have legislation in place to issue moving violations to driverless vehicles. Arizona – a hotbed of autonomous driving – is working on the same, issuing legislation that says that autonomous vehicle owners “may be issued a traffic citation or other applicable penalty if the vehicle fails to comply with traffic or motor vehicle laws.”
Neither Cruise or Waymo have reported any deaths involving their autonomous cars. Still, it’s very early days, with Waymo tallying just over 7 million driverless miles, and Cruise having had logged 5 million miles before stopping operations. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that humans, on average, cause one death about every 100 million miles driven.
Still, in light of Cruise’s fallout from the accident, Waymo has issued a fresh round of data that claims its robotaxis are safer than human drivers. It cites a 57% reduction in police-reported crashes and an 85% reduction in crashes causing bodily injury. That’s compared to human drivers over 7.14 million rider-only miles.
Of course, while Cruise has been the center of the controversy, it hasn’t been smooth sailing for Waymo either, which has had its own problems, mostly for blocking traffic. One incident reportedly involved five Waymo vehicles stalling on one street in San Francisco due to dense fog.
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Tesla has mysteriously announced that it is holding an ‘all-hands’ meeting in public live-streamed on X amid a tough quarter.
This is a first for the company.
This is a developing story. Refresh the page for updates.
At around 9:00 PM ET Thursday, Tesla posted a live stream on X with some sound checks titled “all hands meeting Q1 2025”, but it went down shortly after.
At 9:30PM ET, the stream went live again, but nothing started until 9:57 PM when a video about Tesla’s business started.
This new strategy of holding a surprise public meeting comes at the end of a challenging quarter for Tesla, as the automaker is expected to deliver fewer cars than it had in any quarter in the last 3 years.
- Musk is now on stage:
A “all-hands”, or town hall, is a company-wide gathering where all employees, leaders, and stakeholders discuss company-wide matters, ensuring everyone is on the same page and updated on key information.
- Musk says that Tesla is the top place to work.
- Musk release safety data:
- Musk says that a better to think about a sustainable economy is “abundance for all.”
- Musk claims that “everyone in the world will be able to get everything they want” – “good or service”.
- He says that AI and robotics are the keys to that – hence why Tesla is working on Optimus.
- Musk claims that Model Y is going to be the best-selling car this year despite having still 3 full quarters to go in the year.
- The CEO jokes about people burning down Tesla vehicles.
- Musk says “people should also buy the Model 3”.
- He again claims that the Cybertruck is bulletproof despite this being a stretch.
- Musk says that Tesla will make “millions of Tesla Semi trucks” and they will be autonomous in the future
- Musk again claims that “autonomous Teslas will be everywhere”. We will have regulatory approval globally in 5 years.
- The CEO again claims that “almost the entire existing fleet is autonomous”
- Musk references the stock market, as Tesla stock is crumbling, and repeated his self-driving claims about increasing value of Tesla vehicles through software updates that will make the cars autonomous.
- Musk literally just said “hold on to your stocks”
- Tesla’s stock is down 40% so far this year.
- Musk talks about Megapacks and Powerwalls. No real new information so far.
- Musk: my predictions have been pretty good.
- The CEO says that he believes Tesla makes the lowest cost per kWh battery cell in the world.
- Musk releases a few manufacturing updates:
- Musk says that Tesla is making progress with Dojo, which had fallen behind. The first version is active, but operating at “5% capacity”.
- Musk says it is a “significant milestone” to see the cars drive themselves at the factory, six years after he said that Tesla would make cross-country trips autonomously.
- Musk claims that Optimus is “the most sophisticated humanoid robot on earth”
- Boston Dynamics posted this yesterday:
- Musk claims that the difference is that Optimus has “real-world AI” even though he started a separate AI company: xAI.
- Musk now takes questions from employees.
- The CEO says that Tesla will make about 5,000 Optimus robots this year – 50,000 in 2026 and start selling them externally in the second of 2026.
- He says that it will be available to Tesla employees first.
- It’s getting pretty boring at this point. I might end this live blog.
Electrek’s Jamie Dow on the live stream: this whole thing is an AI video trained on elon videos from 10 years ago.
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Rooftop tent specialist iKamper has unveiled a new all-season tent designed exclusively for Rivian EV owners. The Skycamp Mini was designed to protect its inhabitants from high winds, UV Rays, and inclement weather and just popped up in the Rivian Gear Shop this afternoon. Check it out.
iKamper is an outdoors gear specialist founded in 2012 and based in the Pacific Northwest. The company specializes in vehicle accessories made from premium materials to withstand tough terrain and, as its website states, “adventures around the globe.”
Naturally, an EV automaker like Rivian is a match made in heaven, as the company ethos is based around nature and exploration (it even calls its branded EV chargers the Adventure Network). One of the perks of being a Rivian R1T or R1S owner is the accessories available in Rivian’s gear shop, including options like a travel kitchen, field kit, and surfboard mounts.
When Rivian’s flagship models debuted, so did a three-person tent designed in collaboration with Yakima, which is still available today for $2,800. Now, Rivian has introduced a second rooftop tent option to its customers, which is available through iKamper. It costs quite a bit more, but it also looks pretty stellar.
iKamper’s new Rivian branded tent available in Gear Shop
Rivian shared a brief release with Electrek following the unveiling of the brand-specific rooftop tent from iKamper it calls the Skycamp Mini. Per the release:
Building off the platform of the famed Skycamp 3.0 Mini, the Rivian x iKamper Skycamp Mini features PFAS-free construction with a Rivian-inspired aesthetic, including exclusive color options, blacked-out hardware, Rivian-keyed mounting bracket locks and a sleek, aerodynamic hardshell that minimizes drag to maximize range. Outfitted with iKamper’s deluxe RTT Comfort self-inflating air mattress, this new collaboration delivers refined craftsmanship and rugged durability for year-round adventure.
As you can see from the images above, the Skycamp Mini features locking mounting brackets compatible with Rivian’s Adventure Key Set and an aerodynamic hard shell storage case that sits on the truck bed or roof of a R1T or R1S, respectively, atop the EV’s cargo crossbars (sold separately).
The rooftop tent kit includes iKamper’s FTT Comfort 4-inch mattress. According to its creators, the tent can sleep one to two people and withstand wind up to 35 mph, protecting Rivian owners from the sun and rain. Kaila Vandermey, commercial lead for Rivian Adventure Gear spoke:
Rivian vehicles are built to empower exploration. Partnering with iKamper on the Rivian x iKamper Skycamp Mini, is the perfect accessory to complement and elevate that adventurous lifestyle. No matter where your adventure takes you, this mini rooftop tent delivers the freedom to explore and rest wherever you choose.
You can view more images of the iKamper Skycamp Mini on the Rivian Adventure Shop homepage. Still, it redirects you to the iKamper website to purchase one for a starting price of $4,595. That’s not all, though. To support this product launch, iKamper said it will include its Disco Series Stove outdoor cooking system as a bonus for customers who preorder the Rivian-specific rooftop tent while supplies last.
What do you think? Dope, or nope?
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Environment
Tesla protesters get rolled coal by diesel lover: no one knows which side is which anymore
In a new viral video, a diesel truck driver rolled coal over dozens of Tesla protesters peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights.
It’s not clear which side is which at this point.
“Rolling coal” is a term used when truck drivers with modified diesel engines deliberately emit large amounts of black or grey smoke, sometimes directed at specific cars or people – often as a form of anti-environmentalism protest or to be obnoxious.
It is illegal in most jurisdictions due to violating clean air laws.
Tesla drivers used to be the target of diesel truck owners rolling coal. I wrote about it several times to point out that some truck owners hate Tesla for no reason.
It’s impressive how quickly the world changes.
Now, you have thousands of people around the US protesting at Tesla locations. You would think that those Tesla-hating truck drivers would be on the protesters’ side, but that’s not the case anymore.
Instagram user Pierce6.4 posted a video of himself rolling coal in his Ford F-250 6.4 on protestors in front of a Tesla store this weekend:
The video went viral and was reposted by several pages on Facebook and X. Most commentators on Pierce’s page joked about how he should have gotten closer.
Not only are rolling coal diesel truck drivers now against peaceful people protesting Tesla, but some Tesla fans and shareholders are with those diesel truck drivers.
On a Tesla shareholder’s Facebook group, a top contributor posted the video favorably, and another added he is surprised to be on the same side as the diesel truck driver:
It shows a clear divide within Tesla fans as the brand and its CEO are increasingly politicized.
Electrek’s Take
We live in the weirdest timeline possible. A few years ago, peabrain truck drivers were rolling coal on Tesla drivers to protest against electric vehicles.
Now, you have environmentalists protesting Tesla and truck drivers rolling coal on Tesla protestors.
If you would have told me this is where we would be just 3 years ago, I would have never believed you.
First off, there’s obviously no excuse for this. These people peacefully protested, which is their right under the US Constitution.
Attacking them like that is not only dangerous and polluting, but it is, at its core, un-American.
Secondly, the fact that they are people who call themselves Tesla fans cheering shows that the community has lost its moral compass.
It’s all about money and the stock; it’s not about the mission anymore.
Where is the outrage from Tesla fans? I have condemned vandalism against Tesla vehicles and property, but this is objectively worse. It’s a direct physical attack on Tesla protesters. It’s not acceptable.
As a long-time Tesla fan and defender of its mission to accelerate the world’s transition to electric vehicles and renewable energy, I never felt so disconnected from this community.
This highlights Tesla’s main issue right now under CEO Elon Musk: it is becoming an entirely politicized brand.
For the left, Tesla is Musk’s personal piggy bank to finance the rise of fascism in the US.
For the right, Tesla is Musk’s personal piggy bank to finance the rise of fascism in the US
While that’s happening, Tesla can’t succeed at its mission to transition the world to a sustainable economy, and we all lose.
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