3800 robotaxis recalled, Uber takes shots at Waymo and more bots in Philly. LegalRideshare breaks it down.
WAYMO RECALLS 3800 ROBOTAXIS
Waymo is recalling 3800 robotaxis. CNBC reported:
Waymo is recalling about 3,800 robotaxis in the U.S. to fix software issues that could allow them to “drive onto a flooded roadway,” according to a letter on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website.
The voluntary recall is for Waymo vehicles that use the company’s fifth and sixth generation automated driving systems (or ADS), the U.S. auto safety regulator said in the letter posted Tuesday.
Waymo autonomous vehicles in Austin, Texas were recently seen on camera driving onto a flooded street and stalling, requiring other drivers to navigate around them. Similar incidents have occurred in other locations, the latest safety-related issues for the Alphabet-owned AV unit that’s rapidly bolstering its fleet of vehicles and entering new U.S. markets.
Waymo has drawn criticism for its vehicles failing to yield to school buses in Austin, and for the performance of its vehicles during widespread power outages in San Francisco in December, when robotaxis halted in traffic, causing gridlock.
The company said in a statement on Tuesday that it’s “identified an area of improvement regarding untraversable flooded lanes specific to higher-speed roadways,” and opted to file a “voluntary software recall” with the NHTSA.
UBER VS WAYMO
Uber takes shots at Waymo. Business Insider reported:
In recent months, Uber and its executives have taken direct and indirect shots at its robotaxi partner Waymo, warning against autonomous vehicle operators trying to scale on their own while also criticizing Waymo’s deployment strategy and technology, with one executive sharing a video on X of a “scary Waymo moment.”
The comments portray AV-only operators like Alphabet’s Waymo as less scalable, less equitable, and less reliable than a hybrid approach — with a mix of human and automated drivers — that makes Uber the AV partner of choice.
Taken together, Uber’s statements show the delicate role it’s trying to play as an arbiter between two competing forces: cities and labor groups skeptical of driverless fleets, and AV companies seeking to usher in a new era of transportation.
“Despite the incredible progress AVs are making around the world, and the enormous potential they hold, they are still far from capable of meeting the level of reliability and ubiquity that customers and cities expect,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in February, adding that the AV operators’ limits “only serve to reinforce the value of a hybrid network.”
UBER EATS ROBOTS EXPAND IN PHILLY
More robots are coming to Philly. Philadelphia Inquirer reported:
Uber Eats has expanded its autonomous robot delivery service to all restaurants within its designated operation zone in Center City, six restaurants on the platform told The Inquirer.
The food delivery service rolled out a small fleet of battery-powered bots in March, with about two dozen restaurants signing up for the pilot. But in recent weeks, restaurateurs who, like Seorabol owner Eunice Cho, do not remember signing up for the program have been instructed by the Uber Eats app to go outside and place orders inside a blinking bot.
Alex Lin, chef at Chinese and Japanese restaurant Green Garden, said he started seeing bots picking up orders as early as April despite not having opted in to any programs. Mira Kim, owner of Koreana, said the same, noting sometimes she would see one bot pickup in a day or as many as five.
Uber Eats said as part of its pilot, the fleet of autonomous delivery robots would operate within the area bound by Race, Spruce, 18th, and Front Streets. The plan was to eventually add more restaurants in coming months, though the expansion appears to have taken place in a matter of weeks, according to restaurants.
The company has emphasized in previous statements that the robots, manufactured by Avride, are not meant to replace humans. The robots can operate up to a two-mile radius, keeping a charge for up to 12 hours. In Philadelphia, the 12th city where the Uber Eats bots have been deployed, they are allowed to operate from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
LegalRideshare is the first law firm in the United States to focus exclusively on Uber®, Lyft®, robotaxis, Waymo, and gig worker accidents and injuries. Consultations are always free.
Full Transcript
Here is the complete, line-by-line transcription of the video, hosted by Jared Hoffa:
[00:00] Jared Hoffa: ladies and gentlemen drivers gig workers and everyone in between welcome to this week in ride share podcast i'm your
[00:06] Jared Hoffa: host jared hoffa it is friday may 15th and this week over 3,000 robo taxis are recalled uber takes pop
[00:14] Jared Hoffa: shots at whimo and more bots hit philly legal ride share breaks it down
[00:27] Jared Hoffa: we're back in the car babe we're doing it we're doing it uh the new og i'm going to call
[00:31] Jared Hoffa: it that's really what it is so let's hit on with the first story here uh whimo is recalling over
[00:36] Jared Hoffa: 3,000 uh robo taxis cnbc reported and said quote "weo is recalling about 3,800 robo taxis in the us to
[00:44] Jared Hoffa: fix software issues that could allow them to as they say drive onto a flooded roadway." now this is according
[00:50] Jared Hoffa: to a letter uh on the national highway traffic safety administration's website this is a voluntary recall and it's for
[00:58] Jared Hoffa: whimo vehicles that use the company's fifth and sixth uh generation autonomous driving system or ads as it's often called
[01:06] Jared Hoffa: uh the whimo vehicles in austin were recently seen on camera driving onto a flooded street and stalling requiring other
[01:13] Jared Hoffa: drivers to navigate around them similar incidents have occurred in other locations the latest safety related issues for the you
[01:20] Jared Hoffa: now google owned unit that is bolstering its fleet so what we're seeing again we just talked about this last
[01:26] Jared Hoffa: week we talk about this all the time i believe torston brought this up you know put these things uh
[01:31] Jared Hoffa: in the deserts and keep working on them they obviously have issues the only good thing i could say maybe
[01:37] Jared Hoffa: is that a lot of this is voluntary recalls uh they are whimo is doing it themselves so the states
[01:43] Jared Hoffa: aren't stepping in yet and saying "hey there's issues you have to recall them." i know they're doing this to
[01:48] Jared Hoffa: be proactive i think that's smart but again it's you throw anything at these whimos and it seems to be
[01:55] Jared Hoffa: a major issue and for now a lot of these issues are technical glitches uh that aren't necessarily physically harming
[02:03] Jared Hoffa: anyone yet but that's not the point because if a whimo is stalling uh at a puddle or any sort
[02:08] Jared Hoffa: of flooded road and a car is behind doing 6070 there's going to be some serious issues so uh again
[02:15] Jared Hoffa: there's just sort of these flags and i believe i brought this up last week there's still not that many
[02:20] Jared Hoffa: whimos uh on the road and when there's more whimos on the road and some of these are clearly having
[02:27] Jared Hoffa: older generation issues as it says fifth and sixth here it's going to compound into other issues major issues and
[02:35] Jared Hoffa: uh you know again their their blanket response is whimo's very safe we're doing this proactively nothing to worry about
[02:42] Jared Hoffa: here uh it even says you know on tuesday it said it identified an area of improvement regarding its ultra
[02:49] Jared Hoffa: versatile flood lanes so that's what it says so again i don't want to beat a dead horse here we've
[02:54] Jared Hoffa: talked about this a ton but uh there's still a lot of issues and the more whims on the road
[02:59] Jared Hoffa: the more issues we're going to have uh this next story is really interesting because we've talked about this a
[03:05] Jared Hoffa: lot and i i'm starting to i would love to hear what you guys think about this there's trouble in
[03:10] Jared Hoffa: the waters here for the uber and whimo uh sort of partnership rivalry and uber's been taking shots at whimo
[03:18] Jared Hoffa: and this is from business insider and they reported quote "in recent months uber and its executives have taken direct
[03:25] Jared Hoffa: and indirect shots at its robo taxi partner whimo warning against autonomous vehicle operators trying to scale on their own
[03:33] Jared Hoffa: while also criticizing whimo's deployment strategy and technology with one executive sharing a video on x of a quote scary
[03:41] Jared Hoffa: whimo moment." we did talk about this i'd say about a month ago and i believe i had said to
[03:46] Jared Hoffa: brian whimo's trying to position themselves to be the tech company for whimo they brought this up before the ceo
[03:54] Jared Hoffa: of uber had said "hey we already have everything in place we have all the data in place hint hint
[03:59] Jared Hoffa: you know whimo you should be come on our system don't try to make your own." i believe this is
[04:04] Jared Hoffa: a preemptive attack to basically say "hey don't don't try to improve your system just use ours." there obviously has
[04:12] Jared Hoffa: to be some concern that if whimo can perfect their perfect their own platform and they don't need uber's app
[04:19] Jared Hoffa: and you know huge user base then they could take the market i think that's really uber's fear here and
[04:25] Jared Hoffa: they're sort of saying hey uh we're we're ready to go and you're not and so it's just easier you
[04:30] Jared Hoffa: know to join us that's the feel i get from this i'd love to hear what you guys think uh
[04:35] Jared Hoffa: but that's what i'm feeling especially with them constantly kind of praising the hybrid network and saying "hey it's it's
[04:41] Jared Hoffa: good to have both sides we're already here." uh the final story this week and i believe i got this
[04:46] Jared Hoffa: because i am currently outside of philly uh uber eats robots are expanding in the philly area and this is
[04:53] Jared Hoffa: from the philadelphia inquirer and they reported quote "uber eats has expanded its autonomous robot delivery service to all restaurants
[05:00] Jared Hoffa: within its designated operation zone in center city six uh restaurants on the platform told the inquirer the food delivery
[05:07] Jared Hoffa: service rolled out a small fleet of batterypowered bots in march with about two dozen restaurants signing up for the
[05:13] Jared Hoffa: pilot but in recent weeks restauranteers uh who do not remember signing up for their program have been instructed by
[05:21] Jared Hoffa: uber eats app to go outside and place orders inside a blinking bot uh and they also emphasized that these
[05:28] Jared Hoffa: are not meant to replace humans the robots can operate up to a 2-m radius keeping a charge for about
[05:34] Jared Hoffa: 12 hours the thing that's interesting about this is we know well two things there's an article about philly recently
[05:40] Jared Hoffa: destroying these bots uh they're all over chicago i've seen them in other markets uh they kind of just go
[05:46] Jared Hoffa: about their their their day if if you will um and no one really seems to mind them at this
[05:50] Jared Hoffa: point it's just kind of become honestly used used to it uh the philly was different now in philly i
[05:56] Jared Hoffa: noticed that there's some articles that they're graffitiing them they're kicking them over they're breaking them typical of of the
[06:03] Jared Hoffa: phil phililly population uh i know i'm from there so um but they're expanding it so you know uber eats
[06:09] Jared Hoffa: is saying that's not deterring us uh we're going to expand the bots the second thing that i think that's
[06:14] Jared Hoffa: interesting though is restaurants who have not opt into this service even though now it's a pilot and it's free
[06:21] Jared Hoffa: uh they're getting bot orders so basically uber eats is saying "we don't care if you like them or not
[06:26] Jared Hoffa: they're coming here and you're going to have to work around this or work with them and that's it so
[06:32] Jared Hoffa: it really puts restaurants at a disadvantage especially if they've never used them before or don't expect them coming because
[06:38] Jared Hoffa: as most people know especially in today's market with businesses and ratings uh and there's stories just about that ratings
[06:45] Jared Hoffa: uh for restaurants are brutal and so if you're late on an order or you weren't ready for an uber
[06:52] Jared Hoffa: eats bot to come and you get confused you're gonna you're going to take a hit potentially in your ratings
[06:57] Jared Hoffa: in customer reviews so uh not really the greatest thing for uber eats to just say "hey we're doing this
[07:02] Jared Hoffa: regardless of what you think." uh and obviously these people are really expressing some frustration the question is is anything
[07:09] Jared Hoffa: can be done about it i don't know uh and i guess we'll see as more of these get deployed
[07:14] Jared Hoffa: how you know these the people of philly and the restaurants respond to it uh it's going to be really
[07:20] Jared Hoffa: interesting i'd love to hear your thoughts i'd love to know if anyone is currently in philly right now and
[07:24] Jared Hoffa: sees them and what the response is uh if you've been to restaurants and saw them outside i'd love to
[07:28] Jared Hoffa: know uh i will be in philly uh in the coming week so i will be able to check them
[07:33] Jared Hoffa: out myself uh but that is the end of uh the stories this week as always ladies and gentlemen uh
[07:39] Jared Hoffa: drivers and as i always say everyone in between if you have any accidents or concerns or anything involving uh
[07:46] Jared Hoffa: you know injury accident related to ride share whether you be a driver or a passenger or victim do not
[07:51] Jared Hoffa: hesitate to contact legal ride share we are the first firm that is entirely dedicated to uber lyft whimo accidents
[08:00] Jared Hoffa: and injuries even if it's a small accident uh and you're unsure what to do give us a call you'll
[08:04] Jared Hoffa: either talk to myself or you'll talk to attorney Bryant Greening we will walk you through the process uh even
[08:10] Jared Hoffa: if you don't think it's that bad and you only need a little bit of treatment doesn't matter don't fight
[08:14] Jared Hoffa: the insurance companies alone uh we're pros at this we've done this for a long time we can help you
[08:19] Jared Hoffa: out make sure you get uh money for lost wages pain and suffering uh and even loss of normal life
[08:25] Jared Hoffa: so please keep us in mind legalrideshare.com has all of our information uh and as i like to say
[08:30] Jared Hoffa: that is the end of this week in rid share see you next week