{"id":7181,"date":"2025-06-23T05:17:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T05:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/7181\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T05:17:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T05:17:10","slug":"teslas-robotaxi-is-live-here-are-some-of-the-first-reactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/7181\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesla\u2019s robotaxi is live: here are some of the first reactions."},"content":{"rendered":"

Tesla finally did the damn thing. The company launched its hotly anticipated<\/a> robotaxi service<\/a> in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, June 22nd \u2014 and we\u2019re now starting to see some of the first reactions roll in.<\/p>\n

But first, we have to get a few important caveats out of the way. Tellingly, the service is not open to the general public, nor is it completely \u201cunsupervised,\u201d as Elon Musk once promised<\/a>. The vehicles will include Tesla-employed \u201csafety monitors\u201d in the front passenger seat<\/a> who can react to a dangerous situation by hitting a kill switch. Other autonomous vehicle operators would place safety monitors in the driver or passenger seats, but typically only during the testing phase. Tesla is unique in its use of safety monitors during commercial service.<\/p>\n

The rides are limited to a geofenced area of the city that has been thoroughly mapped by the company. And in some cases, Tesla is using chase cars and remote drivers as additional backup. (Some vehicles have been spotted without chase vehicles.)<\/p>\n

The service is invite only at launch, according to Tesla\u2019s website. A number of pro-Tesla influencers have received invites, which should raise questions about how unbiased these first critical reactions will be. Tesla hasn\u2019t said when the service will be available to the general public.<\/p>\n

The limited trial includes 10-20 Model Y vehicles with \u201cRobotaxi\u201d branding on the side. The fully autonomous Cybercab<\/a> that was first revealed last year won\u2019t be available until 2026 at the earliest. The service operates in a small, relatively safe area of Austin from 6AM to 12AM, avoiding bad weather, highways, airports, and complex intersections.<\/p>\n

Despite those hours, the robotaxi service seems to have gotten off to a slow start. Several invitees had yet to receive the robotaxi app by 1PM ET on Sunday. Sawyer Merritt, who posts pro-Tesla content on X, said he saw 30 Waymo vehicles go by while waiting for Tesla\u2019s robotaxi service to start. Musk posted at 1:12PM that the service would be available later that afternoon, adding that initial customers would pay a \u201cflat fee\u201d of $4.20 for rides \u2014 a weed joke with which Musk has a troubled history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While riders waited, the company published a new robotaxi page <\/a>to its website detailing a lot of the rules and guidelines of the service. Visitors are invited to sign up for updates about when Tesla\u2019s robotaxi service may come to their area. (Musk has said there could be up to a thousand robotaxis on the road \u201cin a few months.\u201d)<\/p>\n

After finally being granted access to the app, Merritt posted an image of the service area map, which appeared to cover a small area bordered by the Colorado River to the north, Highway 183 to the east, Highways 290 and 71 to the south, and Zilker Part to the west.<\/p>\n

And then the rides began \u2014 and they appeared to be mostly uneventful. Several invitees livestreamed themselves summoning their first cars, interacting with the UI, and then arriving at their destination. Several videos lasted hours, as the invitees would conclude a trip and then hail another car immediately after. One tester, Bearded Tesla Guy, described the app\u2019s interface as \u201cbasically Uber.\u201d Many had some difficulty finding the pickup location of their waiting Tesla robotaxi.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is like Pokemon hunting,\u201d one person on Herbert Ong\u2019s livestream said, \u201cbut its robotaxi hunting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once inside, the Tesla-employed safety monitor would ask the riders to show their robotaxi apps to prove their identities. Otherwise the safety monitors kept silent throughout the ride, despite riders trying to get them to talk. I\u2019m assuming that Tesla will need to come up with some other way to identify their riders if they plan on removing the safety monitors from the passenger seat. Waymo, for example, asks customers to unlock their vehicle through the ridehail app.<\/p>\n

The rear screen instructs the riders to fasten their seatbelts, and after pressing an animated \u201cstart ride\u201d button, the vehicle gets underway. Riders can also start the ride from a similar button in the app. Since riders are registering for the robotaxi app using their preexisting Tesla profiles, they\u2019re greeted with their preferred music apps on the rear screen with all their playlists and saved tracks.<\/p>\n

The front display shows a visualization similar to consumer vehicles using Tesla\u2019s Full Self-Driving feature \u2014 even though Musk had said the robotaxis are running on a special version of FSD that\u2019s not available to the average Tesla owner. There are \u201cpull over,\u201d \u201cstop in lane,\u201d or \u201csupport\u201d buttons on the center display. Another tester, Chuck Cook, said the visualization lacked some of the controls that a normal Tesla might have.<\/p>\n

Pressing the support button places the rider in a queue as they wait for the remote operator to connect. On Cook\u2019s livestream, it took approximately two minutes before an operator finally connected. \u201cWe appreciate you calling in,\u201d the operator said (though the cellular connection was poor). \u201cWe\u2019re here for any issues to support your ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the various trips, the robotaxis encountered a bevy of normal situations, like U-turns, speed bumps, pedestrians, construction, and more. The vehicles maintained speeds of about 40 mph or slower. Common words to describe the ride was \u201csmooth,\u201d \u201cgreat,\u201d and \u201cnormal.\u201d One tester said on X<\/a> that they got the robotaxi to \u201cmess up\u201d in a way that required the remote operator to help out \u2014 though they declined to describe it as a disengagement.<\/p>\n

Ashok Elluswamy, the head of the company\u2019s self-driving team, posted a photo of several dozen people in a room with 10 large monitors on the wall showing live camera feeds from several vehicles. \u201cRobotaxi launch party,\u201d Elluswamy wrote.<\/p>\n

Where Tesla goes from here is the real challenge. Musk has said he also wants to launch a robotaxi service in California, where the regulatory process is a lot more complex than Texas. And even though he has said he wants to take things slow, he also claims that Tesla will have over a thousand driverless vehicles on the road \u201cwithin a few months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Waymo is operating more than 1,500 driverless vehicles in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin \u2014 with plans to expand to Atlanta, Miami, and Washington, DC in the near future. The Alphabet-owned company has said it will grow its fleet to 2,000 vehicles by next year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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