CNBC
CNBCDriverless cars are speeding onto America’s streets, but whether the public will trust robotaxis remains an open question.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans said they would not want to ride in a driverless passenger vehicle if they had the opportunity, according to a Pew Research Center survey. That’s because residents in cities that have yet to experience robotaxis remain unfamiliar with the technology while those in cities with driverless cabs have not yet forgotten about high-profile accidents involving other companies, like GM-owned Cruise. Now Tesla, the loudest and most bullish self-driving proponent of them all, is due to unveil its long-awaited robotaxi after years of unfulfilled promises. The company’s existing Full Self-Driving technology, where a human is still at the wheel, has drawn the scrutiny of regulators and multiple lawsuits after hundreds of crashes. Experts say a great presentation from CEO Elon Musk won’t guarantee a safe robotaxi network. Tesla’s upcoming robotaxi launch threatens to throw the whole autonomous vehicle space off course.
Alphabet-owned Waymo is the leader in the space in the U.S., with the company claiming it has notched more than 22 million driverless miles. It has proven that there is strong consumer demand, with weekly paid rides in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin doubling in just a couple months. And Waymo has worked on building its reputation, launching an online safety hub with data arguing that its cars are safer than human drivers.
Besides Tesla, other competitors are also looking to jump into the race. Amazon says it is getting ready to roll out its fleet of Zoox cars, and Cruise is resuming operations after a 2023 accident led regulators to ground the fleet. Wall Street is already looking ahead to a driverless future, with one analyst arguing that if it hadn’t been for generative AI, 2024 would have been the year of the robotaxi.
CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa speaks to Waymo riders in San Francisco and folks on the street in New York City to find out whether Americans are ready for robotaxis.
Chapters:
1:17 Chapter 1 – Your robotaxi is here
6:14 Chapter 2 – Can you trust it?
10:48 Chapter 3 – An autonomous world
Anchor: Deirdre Bosa
Produced by: Jasmine Wu, Laura Batchelor, Drew Troast
Edited by: Lisa Setyon
Supervising Producer: Jeniece Pettitt
Field Production: Jessica Xing
Animation by: Jason Reginato, Chrsitina Locopo
Additional Footage: Getty Images, Waymo, Zoox, Wayve, Tesla
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Your Robotaxi Is Here, But Can You Trust It?
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50 Comments
@Soldierstaff-g9w
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMAs someone who hates chitchat & small talk & wish that every people in society functions like robot yeah I support this.
@jumbomuffin1316
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMIt’s funny how people are scared of robocars but humans behind the wheel is the biggest cause of deaths
@johnnyquebedeaux6824
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMNo
@mmartin5707
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMThis is all we need-
@ericahymes3780
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PM😢Who's going to reimburse to those uber humans soon will losses their income survival 😢
Specifically many young people in college and universities do uber, doordash, and lift 😢
How about many men or women suffering injuries can not work anymore at groceries stores or senior homes Memory health-care facilities 😢 may doing uber and doordash to survive their economy 😢
This evil AI Billionaires 😢 plan is erase humans in mother's Earth 😢 seriously this is so corrupt, and the destruction of human rights to work 😢 and we all not millionaires, wity high College PHD Doctorates degrees on financial to be able to invest on the New York stocks 😢 this humans need ti survive in this new evil Supremacist Empire of a foreign immigrants like Elion musk from South Africa the apartheid country super racist humans arrived to our country is called United States of North America 😢
Humans should fight back 👉👊🤜🤛👈🌎🌍🌏
Anonymous
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMWhy don't they build self driving trains and subways?
@cyrilfiggis4429
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMTake ubers and taxis, keep people employed. no driverless delivery trucks
@Floridafanatic28
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMWhen the day comes that a HUMAN DRIVEN car does NOT have an intoxicated driver behind the wheel, a distracted driver, a poorly educated driver, a careless driver, a non-creepy driver, a driver who can see what's happening on the street as well as on the sidewalk simultaneously, a driver with good reflexes that can stop on a dime almost 100% of the time, a driver who can predict what another car or pedestrian is about to do and take smooth, immediate action or a driver that reliably follows the rules of the road, then I will choose a human driver over an autonomous one. Until that time, I will always choose a driverless if given the choice.
@Hoors_of_Jannah
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMCool ❤
@ronch550
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMAs someone who can't drive and doesn't wanna hire pesky drivers anymore, i hope driverless cars come to my country very soon!!
@MrDad-d1m
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMWake up! Save this post! It's simple common sense, the future of driverless cars will spell disaster to the economy. The only reason why people survived job loss and unemployment especially during covid is 1099 jobs to fall back on. These Tech companies are going to rake in this money from PEOPLE who depend on this income. Slowly the economy will start to tank and we will enter the new depression. Amazon has taken over and closed so many brick and mortar stores and now our new president is in bed with these tech companies showing his gratitude but not looking outside the box of what's happening. This is why there was monopoly laws set in place but ignored. Folks if you're in the stock market watch very carefully. The rise of robotaxis will be the fall of the economy and people will be scrambling to find jobs. Wake up people! The middle class will become poor and the poor will be homeless. It's a real recipe for disaster.
@aensti9077
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMIf there is a risk of male taxidrivers assaulting customers, why are we still allow men to be taxidrivers??
@Mrpolaris79
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMOh. And they need to be bullet proof 100% by 2026 the way the world is going. If you can’t get out and car won’t go cause someone is in front of it then they shoot u up, it needs to be bulletproof. We are creating our own demons here. Remember the riots, massive protest? Well they gonna get worse. Do you want to be in one of these cars and it won’t move and it’s not bullet proof? NOPE! A gang? A active shooter who lost his job as a taxi driver his whole life? Nope! I’m all set.
It’s like going to Walmart and having now to bag your own groceries and not get paid for it. Or have cops at your door cause you missed scanned something. Ridiculous. You can’t trump human instinct.
I BET THE APP OR THESE CARS ASK FOR A TIP JUST LIKE THE GAS STATIONS NOW THAT YOU SCAN YOUR OWN FOOD YET NO ONE IS IN THE STORE!
You people gotta smarten up. Wake up! We don’t want this!
@Mrpolaris79
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMCan it pick up on the LA fires and stay out of the area or get the F outta dodge? I bet it can’t and you’re stuck. Fried by flames. True hell!
The problem is you will never trump a human beings instinct. Ever. It’s just like dog fighting with f16. Computers can’t think out of the box.
@thoughtcriminal-k5l
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMLooks like 300k of tech to replace a 30k a year uber driver.
@wqretfgh3473
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMEveryone laughing 😂😂😂 . This is magic car. Thanks god to give these cars.❤
@ELGRANHERNAN
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMI got many concerns.
@GotterVibez
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMpretty soon human life will be obsolete … 🙁
no activities left for humans to feel proud of…everything is simply taken away from them by greedy businesses
@markstocker5121
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMSafer but not failsafe. Not a vote of confidence in my opinion.
@TY-we9uo
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMFinally,the stress of driving is goin to be over.
@kristinabrodnevskaya7219
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMSo cool! Waymo reminds me of this autonomous boats company in Amsterdam: Roboat.
These guys have the same tech of Waymo but on the water!
@avgjoe5969
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMAs per usual CNBC ragging on Tesla and getting facts wrong. Tesla uses the engagements spec of driver intervention, Waymo uses the same spec to mean, someone remotely monitoring cannot fix the problem. These are two different specs.
Granted that Musk has been too optimistic and Waymo said that the perception for them is that people expected the tech to be perfected much, much sooner.
Tesla will be entering 2 cities next year with their regular cars. They will add the Robotaxi in 2026/7. They will use remote monitoring like Waymo and Cruise to begin.
Unproven… they have 6 million cars feeding their system and more than 1 million with FSD. Once they add remote monitoring like Waymo has, and adopt the same metric of "manual interventions" then I imagine they will easily match the 1000 or so Waymo cars on all their specs by the end of 2025.
Can't help noticing that the brain behind Tesla FSD 13.x is the largest super computer in the world… not so sure about Waymo. Nor is Tesla limited by geofencing to their first 2 citys.
They could scale from 2 cities next year to 20 in 18 months or so and 100 within 3 years.
I don't see Waymo doing that. FSD 13.x was a big leap in door to door driving. New versions will be rolling out every year or so with many step improvements every couple of months. Colossus has played a big part in that and its growing to 200k CPUs in the next few months. If the jump from 12.x to 13.x is any indication, improvement will be even more rapid.
I expect Tesla to overtake Waymo in 2 years as their system has improved much faster and is vastly more scalable.
I expect MSNBC to acknowledge it in 5 years… if they find a buyer for the news agency.
@AllanRodriguez-f2h
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMBy the way, Elon inspires people to create babies to become lazy and incomeless? What is his idea in increasing human population and that's a good idea. But what is the principle behind this? I favor his idea but i dont have a slight idea the principle he is using here.
@logiquol123
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMIf anyone has doubts, they will get better and better. It's inevitable they will eclipse us as being a safer alternative than other humans drivers. It will take time though.
@crl6355
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMLet's be honest, this is all about greed, monopolies & revenue!
@crl6355
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMThese kids are beyond disappointing! They don't get it! We are different creatures than them!
@crl6355
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMDid that guy say magical? Oh boy…no thanks! These cars should NOT be allowed on the road with us. Test tracks are fine. We have a right to say NO!
@drugoviic
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMAs a software engineer, I believe they can be safer than humans since they learn from their mistakes. However, I still prefer using a cab with a driver because they need to make a living as well.
@LogicalArtist
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMHumans don't drive using "vision alone". Hearing most definitely plays a role as well as the other senses to varying degrees in different scenarios.
@infochannel392
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMI think eVTOLs may be a disruptor to the transportation space even knocking robotaxies out of the running.
@petergriffinson1907
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMI don’t trust drivers around it 😂
@aperson1181
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMI never driven in Tesla or other robot taxis but I'm still confused as to why Musk did not use all the technology such as lidars, radars, and other technology to make the vehicle safer
@g.ramanan5190
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMberzallion fake statement
@littleripper312
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMIt cant be worse than human drivers.
@57Hodman
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMThese driverless cars will become much safer once ALL other vehicles on the roads are also driverless.
@kurored-bq1pd
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMso why not Tesla?
@devarunbhattacharya8438
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMDoes CNBC always push new tech or it's just with autonomous cars????
@FlatulentWhale
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMWhat a clickbait title. The Waymo taxis are nothing if not too polite when they drive. I've used them at least 20 times already. It's easy to trust when your alternatives are the wild bipolar messes you get with various taxi, Uber, and Lyft drivers by comparison.
Not for nothing, but you can also select your own iHeartRadio music station for the ride or just leave it on the calm music that plays by default.
The only issue is roundtrip service being setup weirdly and being way too polite while dodging jaywalkers or double parkers.
@tomohiroyoshida2206
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMWhat is a good 👍 robot or human??😊
@ACK333
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMSomeone told me he wants to be taxi driver after jobs isolation in top management board… 😝
@smorris281
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMI’m not getting a ride from anyone, unless there’s two hand on the wheel and feet on the peddles.
@AndogaSpock
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMIs it cheaper though?
@AndogaSpock
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMDo they also has social media bots who comment on videos ? 😂
@youtubetroll6620
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMthe biggest problem is to many old timer folks, and not enough English born children, America is a hot mess right now,
@madman9185
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMisrael can manipulate GPS signal, once you will see you are in florida, once in Mexico. all hell will break down at that time.
@omarlydner9988
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMTesla doesn’t have vehicles freely testing on the roads because of their brand image and they just don’t want Teslas just driving around anywhere. They have to still keep some sense of exclusivity so the numbers for testing are not accurate. I feel like they’re doing their own private testing and they don’t need to share anything or any data with anyone.
@David-l6c3w
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMMy concern is that totally autonomous vehicles with no manual override are perfect modes of transportation for a totalitarian society.
Imagine a society like China where by law the only choice is an autonomous vehicle that the individual cannot assume control.
The state would be able to monitor and control the movement of all of its citizens via AI and autonomous vehicles.
The individual liberty and freedom to go where we want and when we want without being tracked could be taken away very easily and quickly by the state.
@ronanh13
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMI can't wait to see one of these navigate a country road in Ireland 😂 good luck
@user-yg1dg6xm2g
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMDriverless cars may be statistically safer, but they shouldn't just be slightly safer—they should be dramatically safer.
@High-Tech-Geek
02/18/2025 - 7:45 PMOMG, they are comparing these to Uber drivers?? No wonder. These Robotaxi users don't know how to drive! LOL
I trust my own driving skills a million times more than a dumb AI. I don't want to be part of the AI's training data trying figure out the (literally) infinite number of encounters they have never experienced before. An AI will NEVER know how to react in every possible scenario. At least a human uses actual reasoning. Imagine an AI seeing an elephant cross the road for the first time. It would have absolutely no clue what to do. A human would instantly know, even having never encountered that before in their life. This is the HUGE difference between dumb AI and the human mind.