Brad Templeton is Chairman Emeritus of the EFF, Singularity U founding computing faculty, software architect and internet entrepreneur, robotic car strategist, futurist lecturer, photographer and Burning Man artist. This is an "ideas" blog rather than a "cool thing I saw today" blog. Many of the items are not topical. If you like what you read, I recommend you also browse back in the archives, starting with the best of blog section. It also has various "topic" and "tag" sections (see menu on…
Topic: Robocars Tags: forbes A Waymo was involved in a pedestrian fatality in Dallas. New details suggest they were not at fault, and could not have prevented events. But could superhuman robocars do more? Read more at Forbes.com in Waymo Fatality Likely Not-At-Fault: Here Are New Details And What-Ifs
Topic: Going Green Robocars Tags: forbes Soon, most EVs will be able to drive themselves slowly to nearby chargers. This will lead to the rise of "full serve" charging where a human or robot plugs the car in Read more at Forbes.com in Full Serve EV Charging Is Coming From Self-Driving. We re Not Ready.
Topic: Robocars Tags: forbes To study robocar crashes, it becomes necessary to try to estimate who was at fault. Tesla s few crashes suggest they just aren t driving much. Waymo and Zoox fault counts are better. Read more at Forbes.com in Studying Fault In Robotaxi Crashes; Tesla s Not Getting Hit Enough
Topic: Transportation Tags: forbes BART is failing, but the plan to expand it involves extravagant cost to duplicate its almost 70 year old design. New technology might serve riders for far less Read more at Forbes.com in San Jose Plans $13B BART Subway Extension. How About <$1B?
Topic: Robocars Tags: forbes Self-driving cars are often depicted as "just more cars" and thus bad news for cities and transit. But what if self-driving could be the salvation of transit? Read more at Forbes.com in Can Self Driving Improve New Transit Even More Than It Does Cars?
Topic: Robocars Tags: forbes Requiring human drivers, 3 sensors, fat permit fees and per-mile taxes are the wrong sorts of regulations, and the companies should avoid endorsing them Read more at Forbes.com in Waymo And Uber Support Bad, Incumbent-Protecting Laws In DC And NJ
Topic: Robocars Tags: forbes More data for better comparisons are good. Now everybody has to do it, and regulators and the public have to learn to look at only the data, and not individual incidents Read more at Forbes.com in Waymo Releases Apples-To-Apples Incident Data, It Speaks To Regulation
Topic: Robocars Tags: forbes Several companies have tried to declare they met a major milestone by having "nobody behind the wheel" and moving supervision to the passenger seat. It s a bad idea Read more at Forbes.com in Robotaxi Companies Need To Stop It With The Right Seat Safety Drivers
Topic: Robocars Tags: forbes 13 years ago, at the Wired 2013 event in London, I was asked when robotaxis would arrive there and as a joke, gave an answer of June 22, 2026 that turned out to be impossibly spot on. (3 companies are waiting on regulators to deploy right now.) It wasn t just a joke, though, it was based on my real predictions of the time, so as we approach the date I predicted, I ve…
Topic: Robocars Tags: forbes Figuring out the depth of water should be easy for a car with 3D sensors. So why is Waymo having so much trouble tracking flooding? Read more at Forbes.com in Waymos Have Trouble With Floods, Which Is Surprising
Topic: Robocars Tags: forbes A Waymo left a rider at the airport without his bags. Another had a flat tire on the way to the airport. Incidents like this teach hard lessons about customer service. Read more at Forbes.com in Two Waymo Airport Stories Teach A Lesson About Customer Service
Topic: Robocars Tags: forbes Flying cars, self-driving vans and full traffic metering probably can t be fully ready in 2028, but some modern technology can help to reduce the traffic nightmare. Read more at Forbes.com in The L.A. Olympics Are In Two Years, Perhaps Too Soon For Much 21st Century Transportation
Topic: Best Of Blog Air Travel Photography Here s the video I made in 2024 on watching a total solar eclipse, the most spectacular natural phenomenon you can see on the Earth. Below, I have some updates for what s different about the 2026 eclipse on Aug 12 in Spain and Iceland. Of course, the main thing that s different is that it will be in Spain, it will fairly short, and it will be near sunset,…
Topic: Going Green Robocars Tags: forbes It s counter-intuitive, but smaller, van-sized vehicles can make more energy-efficient transit than buses and trains, because better service means less empty seats, thanks to self-driving Read more at Forbes.com in After Earth Day, Understand The Transit Compromise To Grasp Efficiency
Topic: Robocars Tags: forbes FSD and Robotaxi will be a lot slower to roll out than promised earlier. A few details were given on upgrading older HW3 cars to use FSD, once it works. Read more at Forbes.com in Elon Musk Details FSD Upgrades, Slowed Robotaxi Rollout
Topic: Robocars Tags: forbes Why is Pony.AI starting operations in Croatia? Read more at Forbes.com in China: Pony.AI Wants Toe In European Water
Topic: Going Green Robocars Tags: forbes Self-driving cars seem to be just more cars, and people who dislike cars don t love that. But the electric robotaxi offers much more potential Read more at Forbes.com in Urbanists Hate Cars. Should They Hate Electric Robotaxis?
Topic: Robocars Tags: forbes Tesla has expanded their service area for rides with nobody in the vehicle. This implies they are closer to ready, but other clues suggest otherwise Read more at Forbes.com in Does Tesla Really Have A Robotaxi? They Don t Make It Easy To Find Out
Topic: Robocars Tags: forbes Baidu Apollo Robotaxis froze in the middle of lanes, stranding passengers and causing crashes. What didn t Baidu learn from Waymo and what might we suspect about the cause? Read more at Forbes.com in Baidu Silent About Failure Of 100 Robotaxis In Wuhan
Topic: Robocars Tags: forbes Verne was to ship a Croatian built 2 seater custom robotaxi with Mobileye Drive. Instead they have a Chinese robotaxi from Pony.AI and Arcfox, managed by Uber. Read more at Forbes.com in Verne Plans Croatian Robotaxi, Dropping Mobileye And Dropping Verne?