Walt, a busy week. We were out there doing field work. Tesla launched unsupervised robo taxi in Miami. And no surprise, we were there. As Tesla launches unsupervised robo taxi in Miami, Waymo lit up four markets. Very interestingly, they had an ODD photo for Tampa. I doubt that happens. Something to watch. As Waymo lit up four markets, The Road to Autonomy's Omega algorithm uncovered four potential new European deployments. And NHTSA sent the letter, 'Stop blocking ambulances.' Let's get into it. Let's start with Tesla in Miami. What do you think? Looking at it from the outside, not having gone for a ride with myself and David Moss. What do you think?
Well, I don't know. I think we should really throw this right back to you because this is your home market. As Florida man as you are, Southern Florida man as you are, we should get your impact. But I'll give you the facts here, which is it did go live on July 3rd. This is the first market outside of Texas and California. So, their third state. I don't think I've seen any videos, maybe you can correct me, of a safety attendant or driver in Model Y's there. So, no safety monitor, no chase car. Remember that. Remember we had people in Austin like looking for chase cars and things like that. In any event, let's throw it back to you. Give us your field report. This is what we like to do, field reports.
We do. We put on the inspector hat and we go and we inspect. Interesting thing which has not been covered very broadly, and this is a technicality but it's an important technicality. On day one to day two, the ODD expanded by roughly three blocks. I know that's small, but it is a technicality. It just tells you the level of detail that we go into. In Miami there was no chase vehicle. There were several launching lots on day one. There were two vehicles. That was widely reported. On day three, no pun intended, it increased to three vehicles. And it is our belief we're going back. Norway, England, World Cup. So, we're going to see hopefully this tranquility doesn't go to five vehicles, but fully unsupervised operating in torrential downpours going through flooded streets. However, there is one caveat that we've asked Tesla for comment and we've asked Waymo for comment. Can it operate in lightning storms? Because both times the lightning storms happened. In the Tesla app, high service demand, aka we're not telling you what's happening. And in the Waymo app, service offline. You say, 'Well, how did you know that?' We were at a location. When the golf course siren goes off, it's a lightning alert. And both services went offline. That's something we're trying to get to the bottom of.
Hopefully this wasn't like a Caddyshack situation. You're by the golf course, he goes for the back swing and he gets electrocuted. But seriously, like, you know, it's been a little while since we've been to Austin. You know, as our listeners know, we both have FSD. Just give us a sense of the quality of the ride relative both to Austin drive experiences, as well as your FSD experience.
If, and I want to add another ingredient into the mix to Houston because I've also done it in Houston. Miami was by far the best unsupervised experience we've ever had. The ride was confident and it rode really, really smooth. When you and I were in Austin and we did one of our early field reports, we had some of those incidents. Those were all dissipated. They were all gone. It is my assumption and my belief that they are running an advanced version of FSD. I have no way to prove that. It's just an assumption because I drove down there on 14.3.4 and it drove beautifully. But when we got it unsupervised, it was a whole different level. Very, very assertive, not aggressive, really good driving. And I said to David and I put in the field report, I believe it's just a matter of time until Tesla cracks FSD supervised and this thing goes widescale.
And to be clear, you were in Model Y's or were you in a Cybercab? And if you were in the Y, did you see any Cybercabs out and about on the streets?
We were in the Y and us being us, we counted license plates. Yes, there are several launch points in Miami where Cybercabs are launching. We saw Cybercabs at a staging lot, dozens of them. We saw Cybercabs at a launch point and we also saw Cybercabs in Miami driving. And I want to point out the technicality because it is a technicality. Every Cybercab that we photographed had a steering wheel. We did not see one Cybercab without a steering wheel. However, and this was interesting and we have this on video, is there at the launch point, the gentleman that's there as a safety driver was getting ready to launch FSD. No, NHTSA won't like this, but it happened on private property. Blocked a FedEx truck. And very interestingly enough, when he launched FSD, a white screen came on. Not the black screen, not the traditional screen that you and I have. A white screen came on. So, that's something interesting.
Okay, you lost me a little bit there. So, let's back up because you threw a lot of words. There's a lot of terms that I don't understand, so I'm not sure how our listeners understand. So, when you say launch FSD and launch points, can you be a little bit more specific here? Like, where are the locations? Are you saying that these are staging areas? How did you see the screen? If this was a screen in the Cybercab, when you say launch FSD, what does that even mean?
Sure. There are two locations in Miami that we uncovered where Tesla launches the vehicles when they're not in operation and they go to sleep. One location they go to get service and they go to get cleaned. When I say launch, just similar to my Tesla and your Tesla, you have the start FSD button in the upper left. You saw the gentleman point his finger there. However, it was a white screen, not the traditional screen that's in there.
Yeah. Now I follow what you're saying. Thank you for slowing down. I know you're excited and slowing down and explain that a little bit better. So, obviously these Cybercabs have, you know, steering wheels. I assume they're using for testing. I assume that no external people like yourself or David Moss or others have been put in a Cybercab yet in Miami?
Not that I have seen. I'm under the assumption and individuals that I saw get into the Cybercabs had the Tesla employee badges. I did not see one individual get in that did not have an employee badge.
So then if we go back to the lots, your statement of the lots, just kind of unpacking that very excited description. If we go back to the dozen or so or whatever was Cybercabs in lots with the wheels, wouldn't you make the assumption then that those are not inventory to be put into the market. That's inventory to continue to build up the mileage on the Cybercabs and the testing in the Cybercabs as well as I guess, you know, whatever testing that they need to do for Florida.
Want to clarify, it was over two dozen Cybercabs. Not a dozen, over two dozen. There were more Cybercabs. All with wheels. Everyone had a wheel. And another thing to point out, every single one of those Cybercabs had a Florida license plate. That was very, very interesting there. They were not Texas manufacturing plates. So, they were registered in the state of Florida. They had Florida plates. It is my assumption and my belief that those were validation vehicles. And I have the hunch and I'm totally sold on what you've been saying publicly for a long time now that they're really truly getting ready to launch is going to be Cybercab. That's going to be the big major launch and what we saw in Miami counting more Cybercabs than Ys. I truly believe that you are right.
I know I was going to ask you like did it look like the wheel could be taken out but then I'm like what that probably not going to be the same. They'll just rotate these things to new markets. So, then I guess the question is, did there look like there was any inventory there like you and I both saw in Austin of Ys and some Cybercabs and some Cybertrucks inventory building, but specifically of Cybercabs without steering wheels. That might suggest that like, okay, you take these two dozen or whatever it is that have wheels, you do your testing. Now we see them building the inventory to kind of launch Miami with more Cybercabs or more Model Ys, that type of inventory.
There was Model Y inventory staging a couple dozen. Some I would say roughly five were branded robo taxi but as you and I know you go and you look for the rear washer. So there was a couple dozen that had the rear washer unbranded. But every single Cybercab that we found and located did have a wheel. There was not one that did not have a wheel. However, I do want to point out for a technicality because that's what we're good at in looking at things. There were two Cybercabs covered under a tarp and we don't break the law. So, we didn't look under the tarp. So, there's a potential that that one under the tarp did not have a steering wheel. But again, we don't cross the line. So, I don't know if that did or didn't. But, there was two under a tarp.
You don't cross the line literally and figuratively. That is good. That is good. I'm glad you were a good boy. Let's just give a little reality check here. Waymo, you were hot to trot when they launched in Miami back in January. That's a 60 square mile ODD. How does that 60 square mile ODD compare to what Tesla is at least testing in the market today?
It's night and day where you can go with the Waymo now. You can go to the beaches, which is very, very nice. They can go over the causeways. The biggest difference, and I want to emphasize this, if you know the Miami region very well, Tesla is out in the west in Doral. They're connecting Coral Gables and they're going to the northwest into Doral. Tesla is operating further west than Waymo is right now. And you might say, well, why is that important? Well, in the west is where the airport is. Waymo's ODD stops at the front of the airport. Tesla's ODD continues on the back of the airport. And for the pushback that we'll get, yes, the driving environment is less intense on the back side of the airport than it is on the front side of the airport as you work your way into downtown into Brickell.
That is some detailed Miami color there. So, thank you for that. Can you just refresh our memory? What else is going on in Miami other than, you know, some of the food delivery robots? Didn't I think Move had some I-Paces or something there as well?
So Move is managing the Waymo fleet. They're operating out of a Wynwood district depot. Went and visited the depot. Now I counted roughly, this is a pure estimation of roughly 100 Waymo vehicles getting charged and cleaned at that depot. Based on what I observed with my own two eyes, that depot is completely maxed out because Waymos were lining up on a public road to go in. There was not enough room there. Interesting thing to point out, the land immediately adjacent to the east says for lease. So to me that depot, the Wynwood depot is fully jammed. Then we went and visited there one that's been publicly disclosed in the South Florida Business Journal. We noticed energy infrastructure started to go in and then across the street the land started to get graded. So Waymo is obviously looking to bring on more depot infrastructure there. For who else is operating there? Zoox. They say the toaster is in Miami. They said that in a Zoox blog press release. I could not find it. Had a looked for the depot. I have a good suspicion of where it is. And I'm going back this weekend because I think I know where it is to see if I can uncover it. And then lo and behold, I'm doing my field work and I'm driving around. I see a Zoox at a Sunoco gas station. When is the last time you saw an AV put gas in there? Yes, I know they're hybrids, but it was something to see. And looking for cars. Zoox is only testing in the Design District and the Wynwood districts. They are not out in Doral. They are not out in Brickell. So very controlled testing environment where we spotted the vehicles.
Once again, that was a lot of information to download. Let me try and delve back into some of the stuff here. In this case, Zoox. Because first you said, I didn't see a Zoox, then you saw a Zoox. But I think what this, the Zoox that you saw was not like the toaster box that everyone is familiar with. It was, what was it? A different type of Zoox car. And because the toaster box does not take gas, was it a Zoox car that they're going to use or one that they're just using to test in the market?
The industry term is called a mule. It's a test vehicle. It's the mapping vehicle. And I want to point this out because you know what? I like to look for details as you know. I looked into there at red lights. Every individual that I saw in the Zoox tester had their hands on the steering wheel. That was interesting. I did not see one where an individual had their hands like on the sides or on their laps. Every single one had their hands on the wheel. I found that to be very interesting as well.
I mean, that doesn't surprise me. And it also doesn't surprise me that you couldn't find a toaster robot. We have to go back to find out exactly what Zoox did say. We'll get back to Zoox more when we talk about Vegas and Waymo later. Before we move on though to the NHTSA letter, which is an obvious next topic given all the Cybercab stuff we're talking about and lack of wheels or perhaps pedals even. I just want to talk about our buddy David Moss who on top of his adventures with you in Miami, I think is gone elsewhere and he's like trying to drive. I've lost track. So many miles he's driving. And I saw on Twitter last night, I don't know if this is 100% true, but it sounded like someone like kind of bumped him from behind, which ended his streak or his attempted streak for autonomy. I don't, it was probably a record anyway because he's just beating his own records at this point. And Grayson, I couldn't help to think that like maybe someone was tracking this guy and like wanted to end the streak. And then that made me think of Austin and some of the police reports and people that fly to Austin if you know to try and meddle and effectively create trouble for Tesla. Am I getting too conspiracy theory here or what? Do we know much about this accident?
You're not getting conspiracy theory because David Moss live streamed it. So you knew its exact location. So it was being live streamed. So there is a very real plausibility there. For the audience, I did speak with Mr. Moss last night. His back's a little sore, but he's okay. That's the good news. It's got a little damage. He's okay. But well, there is a real plausibility because it was completely live streamed.
Well, we'll have to keep tabs on that. And let's see if our Tesla hater is going to file a police report on that one. I'm sure he will. Anything to push his narrative. Anyway, so let's get to NHTSA. Administrator Jonathan Morrison wrote to AV operators on July 8th, citing a clear pattern of driverless cars interfering with police, fire and EMS. Obviously, everyone's familiar with the stuff that the mainstream media likes to profile. Obviously, not the 40,000 deaths that we have every year, but the one-off things here that have happened, which, you know, we'll get into later in terms of Morrison's responses to CNBC. There was cars entering active scenes, blocking ambulances, ignoring flares and cones. Who, you know, I read the letter. It was very tersely worded saying like, 'Hey, we're on the beat, right?' Jonathan Morrison is doing his stuff and asking for, you know, specific solutions. What I found interesting is in your Miami report, I think you said the Tesla pulled over for the ambulance that was there.
It did. And I'm hearing woo woo woo. And all suddenly, very smoothly, the car pulls over to the side of the road and comes to a complete stop. As the fire EMS went flying down the road, and when there was a safe distance, the car went back to driving. It performed flawlessly, better than I would as a human, frankly.
And I've had the same experience recently, actually. It's a little annoying on the latest software update from Tesla FSD that on a road where you really don't need to pull over, it's erring on the side of caution when it sees or hears the sirens and pulling over. So, in any event, obviously Tesla's already doing this, so good timing to have that type of footage. But let's go back again to Morrison because he wrote this letter. I get it's terse, but like the CNBC hosts were all over this guy. And to his credit, you know, he did not use hyperbole as many people would in that situation to go after industries like actually, you know, this is proactive. It hasn't created any problems. No lives have been impacted. And they kept pushing him to go the other way, you know, and to kind of, you know, play into this, you know, kind of what I'll call coastal pushback on autonomy and vehicles and even pushing on like, oh, is NHTSA doing enough? And did a great job saying like, look, you know, we're killing the steering wheel mandate. There's indicated there's, you know, there's, or sorry, killing the pedal indicating that they're going to consider killing the steering wheel mandate that, you know, just taking an educated, thoughtful approach to applying safety while at the same time, you know, obviously watching these guys closely. So it's basically you loosen the hardware rules and tighten the behavioral scrutiny which to me is basically how it should work. Let industry kind of pursue as opposed to again coastal cities and states like Jersey who's like trying to mandate specifically what sensors that you have in a car which is absurd like if I go back to the wireless industry I know you always laugh when I do this mandating between like oh should we use the GSM standard in Europe versus CDMA let the innovation and the technology and the capitalism of our country provide the solutions, you know, to increase the safety and the productivity. So, you know, hat tip, clappy hat to Jonathan Morrison for just an excellent job in pushing back on what could only be described as fear-mongering, you know, on CNBC.
