Last month, Tesla launched its robotaxi service in a limited area in Austin, with a select number of pro-Tesla influencers invited to test the service. The rollout featured about 10 cars with safety drivers in the passenger seat. Further safety restrictions included not operating in bad weather and during certain nighttime hours.
However, a couple of days into the launch, it became apparent that the product was not ready, as videos surfaced of cars struggling to function properly and even appearing to break traffic laws. This led the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to open an investigation into the service.
Musk’s robotaxi vision
Tesla’s robotaxi has been hyped by billionaire CEO Elon Musk, with him even betting on the concept of a driverless car to become the core of the company’s future. This comes on the back of sales falling sharply this year, partly in backlash to Musk’s far-right politics.
In an earnings call earlier this week, Musk said he wants to bring the robotaxi service to new markets, including cities in Florida, Nevada, Arizona, and California — and that 50% of the US population would be able to access Tesla’s robotaxis by the end of the year.
Tesla robotaxi launch: What went wrong in Austin?
However, the rocky launch of the service suggests that Musk’s vision might not be as easy to achieve as it sounds. In just the first three days of the Austin launch, several accidents have been recorded. These include running over a curb, overspeeding, and even driving on the wrong side of the road.
There have been several incidents involving “phantom braking,” a long-standing problem with Tesla.
“Phantom braking” involves a vehicle stopping suddenly for seemingly no reason. This is caused by hardware limitations in Tesla’s cars, as they often mistake shadows and other objects as obstacles.
Competitors in the industry, including Waymo, an Alphabet subsidiary, and Zoox, have their cars equipped with radars and lidar sensors in addition to cameras. This gives them a significantly superior ability to detect objects in bad weather and poor lighting. Tesla’s cars lack these sensors as Musk insists on a camera-only perception system.
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What’s next?
Despite the hurdles, Tesla continues its rollout, targeting a launch in the San Francisco Bay Area this week. The company, however, lacks the required permits to operate its service using autonomous vehicles, and will have a human driver in the driving seat of its “robotaxis.”
Musk had this to say:
“We have done what we said we were going to do. That doesn’t mean we’re always on time, but we get it done. And our naysayers are sitting there with egg on their face.”
Investors grow more wary of Musk’s grandiose claims as earnings miss, sales drop, and the CEO’s involvement in American politics continues. So far, Tesla’s response to these dire conditions has been to roll out a series of deals and discounts.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of Impakter.com — In the Featured Photo: Interior of a Tesla car, March 22, 2019. Featured Photo Credit: Bram Van Oost.
