A first public test of robotaxis by
Tesla in Austin, Texas led to multiple traffic problems and
driving issues, videos from company-selected riders showed over
the first few days.
Chief Executive Elon Musk has tied Tesla’s financial future to
self-driving technology, and with Tesla sales down, the stakes
are high. He said Tesla would roll out the service to other U.S.
cities later this year and predicted “millions of Teslas”
operating “fully autonomously” by the second half of next year.
The Tesla fans invited to the trial were strongly supportive and
posted videos of hours of trouble-free driving, but issues drew
questions from federal road safety regulators and auto safety
experts.
Issues included Tesla robotaxis entering the wrong lane,
dropping passengers off in the middle of multiple-lane roads or
at intersections, sudden braking, speeding and driving over a
curb.
In one instance, a robotaxi drove into a lane meant for oncoming
traffic for about 6 seconds. It had pulled into an intersection
in its left-turn lane with its turn blinker on. Then the
steering wheel wobbled momentarily, and instead of turning it
proceeded straight into the lane meant for oncoming traffic,
prompting a honk from a car behind it.
In another incident, the car suddenly braked with no obstruction
apparent in the video. The passenger jerked forward and their
belongings were thrown to the floor. In a third video, taken
from another vehicle, a robotaxi abruptly stopped twice in the
middle of the road while passing police vehicles with flashing
lights.
Tesla is conducting the test with human safety monitors in the
front passenger seat. A fourth video showed the safety monitor
hitting a button to stop the robotaxi when a delivery truck in
front of it started backing up.
“This is awfully early to have a bunch of videos of erratic
and poor driving,” said Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon
University computer-engineering professor and
autonomous-technology expert. “I was not expecting as many
videos of problematic driving on the very first day,” he said.
Tesla is testing about 10 to 20 robotaxis, which are standard
Model Ys with advanced software, and has been giving rides since
Sunday afternoon.
Reuters was able to independently verify the locations of at
least 11 videos showing issues. Tesla did not respond to a
request for comment.
A City of Austin spokesperson said officials are aware of
the Tesla issues documented on social media and that “when a
potential legal or safety concern is brought to our attention,
we promptly share it with the company.” The spokesperson added
that the police department is “actively collaborating with
Tesla” to ensure officers can safely interact with the
robotaxis.
‘CAUGHT ON CAMERA’
The incidents caught on camera did not involve accidents,
and one expert said some reflected a decision to focus on
safety.
“So far so good. It handled the situations very well and likely
better than even good drivers,” Alain Kornhauser, Princeton
University professor of operations research and financial
engineering, said by email. He added that it would be more
dangerous to drive at less than the speed of prevailing traffic,
for instance.
Tesla’s experiment is unusually public. Other companies
faced similar issues: Alphabet’s Waymo and General
Motors’ Cruise had their own share of traffic mishaps
after showing up on Austin streets. City officials logged dozens
of instances over the past two years where residents and
authorities reported that robotaxis blocked traffic by stopping
in the middle of roads, failed to respond to police directions
and could not deal with emergency vehicles and road closures.
A serious accident involving a pedestrian in 2023 led Cruise to
shut down last year. Waymo is the only robotaxi service in the
U.S. to ferry paying customers without a human backup driver or
in-car safety monitor. It started offering rides to the general
public through Uber in Austin earlier this year.
Musk for years has failed to deliver on promises that
self-driving Teslas are just around the corner. Tesla rolled out
the service for a flat fee of $4.20 to a limited number of
handpicked riders. The service is not available to the broader
public and the robotaxis operate in a limited area, and avoid
difficult intersections and bad weather.
Riders were rarely bothered much by driving issues. Farzad
Mesbahi, a former Tesla program manager, and his co-passenger
hit the “drop off early” option during a ride. The vehicle
stopped in an intersection with a stoplight, his video showed.
They exit quickly and walk to the sidewalk. “The car should have
known to not stop there,” Mesbahi is heard saying after the
ride. “Opportunities for improvement,” the co-passenger says.
That is an example “most companies would not be comfortable
with,” said Kara Kockelman, a professor of transportation
engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, adding that
she was surprised by the traffic mistakes.
“Dropping off people in the middle of a six-lane road or
edge of a busy intersection when the traffic is going in the
opposite direction is pretty dangerous. They definitely did not<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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