When did air travel get so awful?
Wide lapels aren’t the only trend from the 1970’s coming back: there’s also an oil shock and the threat of airline collapse. And if consumers are turning towards EVs in response to rising gas prices, you can bet investors will follow. Exhibit A: Volkswagen is pumping another billion bucks into Rivian, which is aiming to deliver both sub-$50,000 EVs and robotaxis in the coming years. But for now Waymo is the only one in the U.S. actually operating robotaxis at large scale — 500,000 rides a week now. So far, it’s gone pretty well, even with the inevitable conflicts with local governments.
Also, whether America’s airports can function has become something of a day-to-day question. And even if your flight takes off – and it doesn’t crash – it’s a much crappier experience than it used to be. Why is that?
What you need to know
Rivian gets richer: Volkswagen pumps another $1 billion into Rivian, the California-based EV maker that just announced a deal with Uber to produce up to 50,000 robotaxis in the coming years. Despite strong sales of its electric SUVs and high hopes to deliver a mass market, sub-$50,000 SUV, Rivian is still far from profitable, and its pivot to robotaxis has prompted it to push back profit goals further. The most recent investment from VW may very well have been in the works for a while, but the prospect of rising gas prices from the Iran crisis only strengthens the case for OEMs to double down on EVs.
Another milestone for Waymo: Alphabet’s burgeoning robotaxi service says it’s now providing 500,000 rides per week. That’s impressive, but for a bit of context, our friend Harry Campbell of the Driverless Digest points out that Uber and Lyft offer a combined 675,000 trips per day just in New York City.
When the cops have to drive the Waymo: TechCrunch identifies instances where first responders were called to manually rescue stalled Waymos that the company’s remote assistance team could not get to move. The head of San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management says emergency responders cannot be expected to serve as “default roadside assistance” for the company.
Is this good or bad for Tesla? The California Public Utilities Commission says that it is not treating Tesla’s nascent ride-hailing operations in the Golden State as “autonomous.” Unlike Waymo and Zoox, whose autonomous permits require them to submit to a variety of data reporting requirements, Tesla is operating under the same “chaffeur” permit as conventional limo services. But while California doesn’t consider it autonomous, Tesla is certainly branding their ride-hailing that way.
Right now this may be to Tesla’s advantage, since it won’t be required to disclose nearly as much data as its AV rivals. But when it eventually wants to remove the human safety monitors from the cars entirely, it will obviously need California to agree that the Tesla Robotaxi is in fact a robotaxi.
What we’re reading
Will Chicago follow NYC’s lead on congestion pricing? Writing in Bloomberg CityLab, David Zipper explores the possibility of a toll for drivers entering downtown Chicago, an idea that has been tossed around for generations to mitigate congestion and fund public transit. One problem: downtown Chicago actually isn’t actually that congested anymore. But the highways going in and out of downtown are. It’s a different problem, but the solution is the same: putting a price on driving.
This is why flying is awful: Ganesh Sitaraman, author of “Why Flying Is Miserable and How to Fix it,” blames the deregulation of the aviation industry in 1978 for the higher prices and worse service we have now. Whether or not you agree with his argument, it’s undeniable that air travel was once treated as a luxurious experience. That’s undeniably no longer the case.
