Tesla AI Leaves Tesla, Enters Car Sharing
Dutch car-sharing company MyWheels is introducing Tesla Full Self-Driving software in its fleet, beginning with one Tesla Model 3 in Den Bosch. The company plans to expand the FSD-equipped vehicles to at least 50 this year.
MyWheels operates nearly 3,000 electric shared cars in the Netherlands. The Teslas are not fully self-driving. Customers must collect the vehicle themselves and hold a driver’s license.
“You can switch it on and then let it drive without having to intervene,” MyWheels CEO Laurens van de Vijver said. “But you are expected to be able to drive the car if necessary.”
The company’s longer-term vision is a shared car ordered through an app that drives itself to a customer’s door and, after the trip, continues on its own to the next user.
Van de Vijver rejected estimates that fully driverless operation remains a decade away.
“If people tell me this will still take 10 years, I don’t believe that,” he said. “I really suspect that we will see this within five years.”
MyWheels says driverless shared cars could be used more intensively because a vehicle would not sit idle between customers. That could mean fewer cars overall and more available parking space in cities.
“I think you and I will still experience that there are no more cars standing on the canals in Amsterdam,” Van de Vijver said.
He also pointed to opportunities outside major cities. Self-driving cars and vans could eventually serve as an alternative to regional bus service in areas that now have limited service.
MyWheels intends to use the first FSD vehicles primarily to study how customers handle the technology and what effect it has on damage claims. Claims are a significant cost for a car-sharing operator because the vehicles are used intensively. Van de Vijver expects driver-assistance systems to reduce those costs.
Tesla drivers in the Netherlands may now take their hands off the steering wheel; the RDW, the Dutch vehicle authority, has cited a safety benefit.
Autonomous driving is also advancing elsewhere in Europe. Waymo is testing self-driving cars in London and aims to operate them without a driver. Uber has begun offering bookable autonomous rides in Zagreb this month, though a supervisor remains behind the wheel for now. Uber is also bringing thousands of robotaxis to European cities.
(Culled from https://nltimes.nl/)
