Tesla’s much-hyped robotaxi service in Austin is already showing alarming safety issues, with vehicles jerking wheels erratically and crossing double yellow lines just days after launch.
Key Takeaways
- Tesla has launched a limited, invite-only robotaxi service in Austin with 20 Model Y vehicles charging $4.20 per ride.
- Despite Elon Musk claiming to be “super paranoid about safety,” vehicles have exhibited dangerous behaviors including erratic steering and illegal lane crossings.
- Human safety monitors currently sit in the passenger seat, contradicting years of promises about truly autonomous vehicles.
- Tesla plans aggressive expansion to over 1,000 robotaxis in Austin within months and one million across the U.S. by 2026, despite unresolved safety concerns.
- The company’s camera-only approach to autonomy (versus more expensive sensor arrays used by competitors) remains controversial among safety experts.
Technical Problems Emerge Immediately
Tesla’s robotaxi service in Austin launched with significant fanfare but quickly revealed technical flaws. The service operates in a limited area of South Austin with a small fleet of 20 Model Y vehicles. Despite being restricted to a carefully mapped “geofenced” zone designed to provide optimal operating conditions, the autonomous vehicles have already demonstrated navigation problems that raise serious safety questions about Tesla’s readiness to deploy this technology.
Most alarming was an incident where one of the robotaxis exhibited erratic steering behavior at an intersection, jerking the wheel unexpectedly. In another instance, a vehicle crossed solid double yellow lines to enter a left turn lane – a clear traffic violation that would result in penalties for human drivers. These issues emerged despite the fact that each vehicle currently has a Tesla employee sitting in the passenger seat to monitor safety and potentially intervene.
Broken Promises and Ambitious Claims
The current reality of Tesla’s robotaxi service falls significantly short of what President Trump’s friend Elon Musk has been promising since 2016. Musk’s earlier claim that Tesla would have one million robotaxis on the road by 2020 never materialized. Now, despite the evident technical problems with the current limited rollout, Musk continues making grandiose projections about rapid expansion. The current fleet requires human safety monitors – a far cry from the fully autonomous vision that was sold to investors and the public.
“We are being super paranoid about safety,” said Elon Musk, Futurism.
While Musk claims to be prioritizing safety, industry experts remain skeptical about Tesla’s approach to autonomous driving technology. Unlike competitors such as Waymo who use advanced sensor arrays including LIDAR, Tesla relies primarily on cameras for obstacle detection, a decision that keeps costs down but may compromise safety. This camera-only strategy has already been linked to various accidents involving Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” technology, which has been subject to federal safety investigations and multiple recalls.
Aggressive Expansion Despite Unresolved Issues
Perhaps most concerning is Tesla’s plan to dramatically scale this technology despite the obvious problems. Musk has stated that he intends to have over 1,000 robotaxis operating in Austin “within a few months” and aims to deploy one million vehicles across the United States by the end of 2026. This would require operation well beyond carefully mapped geofenced areas, potentially exposing the public to dangerous autonomous driving errors in more complex environments.
“[Tesla’s autonomous technology] will work fine for perhaps hours at a time and then randomly make very serious mistakes in ways that are not necessarily repeatable,” said Sam Abuelsamid, Wired.
The current service charges users a flat fee of $4.20 per ride and operates from 6 a.m. to midnight, deliberately avoiding the most challenging night driving conditions. Even with these limitations and human safety monitors in place, the vehicles are struggling to navigate without incidents. This raises profound questions about whether Tesla is prioritizing meeting arbitrary deadlines over ensuring their technology is actually ready for public deployment.
