The first public test of Robotaxis by Tesla in Austin, Texas gave rise to many traffic problems and driving issues, videos of company-selected riders were shown in the first few days.
Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk is tied Tesla The bets are high, with the financial future for self-driving technology, and the sale of Tesla. He said that Tesla would serve in other American cities later this year and predicted “millions of Teslas” operating “completely autonomous” by the second half of next year.
Tesla’s fans invited to the trial were strongly helpful and posted hours of trouble -free driving videos, but attracted questions from federal road safety regulators and auto safety experts.
Issues included Tesla robotaxis, entering the wrong lane, dropping passengers in the middle of multiple-lane roads or on intersections, sudden braking, driving over a curb and a curb.
In an example, a robotaxi ran in a lane for traffic to come for about six seconds. It pulled its turn in a crossroads in its left-turn lane to its turn blinker. Then the steering wheel moment -drowned, and instead of turning it on, proceeded in the lane for traffic, inspired an honor from a car behind it.
In another incident, the car suddenly did not interrupt the video. The passenger further shocked and his belongings were thrown on the floor. In a third video, taken from another vehicle, a robotaxi suddenly stopped twice in the middle of the road, while the police vehicles passed through shining lights.
The Tesla Front Passenger is testing with the Human Safety Monitor in the Passenger seat. In a fourth video, the safety monitor showed a button to stop the robotaxy when a delivery truck began to backup in front of it.
“This is a group of videos of irregular and poor driving,” said Carnegie Melon University Computer-Engineering Professor and Autonomous Technology Specialist Philipman, “said Carnegie Mellon’s Computer-Engineering Professor and Autonomous-Technology Expert Philip Kopman. “I was not expecting many videos of problematic driving on the first day,” he said. Tesla is testing around 10 to 20 robotaxis, which are standard models YS with advanced software, and have been riding since Sunday afternoon.
Reuters were able to verify at least 11 video places showing issues independently. Tesla did not respond to the remarks request.
A city of a spokesman from Austin said that authorities are aware of the Tesla issues documented on social media and “When a potential legal or safety concern is brought to our attention, we immediately share it with the company.” The spokesperson said that the police department “is actively collaborating with Tesla” to ensure that officials could safely interact with robotaxis.
caught on camera
Incidents caught on camera did not include accidents, and a specialist said some reflected the decision to focus on security.
“It is very good so far. It has handled the situation very well and is likely to be better than good drivers,” said Email, Email, “said Email,” said, Professor Ellen Cornhausar, Professor of Princeton University of Operations Research and Financial Engineering. He said that for example, it would be more dangerous to drive less at the speed of prevailing traffic.
The use of Tesla is unusually public. Other companies faced similar issues: Alphabet’s Wemo and General Motors cruise had its own part of the traffic accident after showing on Austin roads. City officials logged in dozens of examples in the last two years, where residents and officials stated that robotaxis stopped the traffic by stopping the roads, failing to respond to the police’s instructions and could not deal with emergency vehicles and road closure.
A serious accident that involved a pedestrian in 2023 shut down the cruise last year. Waymo is the only robotaxi service in the US to pay customers without only a human backup driver or in-car safety monitor in America. It started riding the general public through Uber in Austin earlier this year.
For years Musk has failed to fulfill the promises that self-driving Teslas is around the corner. Tesla rolled out the service for a limited number of hand -handed riders for a flat fee of $ 4.20 (about Rs 360). This service is not available to the broader public and robotaxis operate in a limited field, and avoid hard intersections and bad weather.
Riders were rarely disturbed by driving issues. A former Tesla program manager, and his co-yatri hit the “Drop of Early” option during a ride. The vehicle stopped at a crossroads with a stoplight, showing her video. They quickly get out and walk on the sidewalk. “The car should not have gone there to stop,” Mesbahi is heard saying after the ride. “Opportunities for improvement,” say co-yatri.
This is an example “will not be comfortable with most companies,” Kara Cockelmann said that she was surprised by the traffic mistakes, saying that she was surprised by traffic mistakes at the University of Texas in Austin.
He said, “It is very dangerous to demolish people in the middle of the six-lane road or when the traffic is going in the opposite direction on the edge of a busy intersection. They definitely did not want to do so or were caught on camera,” he said.
© Thomson Reuters 2025
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