From invading the lane contrary to ghost

From invading the lane contrary to ghost

The Robotaxis autonomous of Tesla that Elon Musk He announced last year they have begun to be a reality. Last Sunday they began to serve Austin, Texaslimitedly, since They will not be available to the general public at least until 2026. What is being seen in the Tejana city is a kind of limited beta in which users selected by Tesla, mainly influencers of the brand, can use the service paying A flat rate of 4.20 dollars per journey. Despite the limited scope of this long setting, incidents have not lacked completely autonomous driving that users of Reddit They are collecting in a thread of the popular Internet forum.

The fleet consists of Between 10 and 20 Tesla Model and that work with a special version of FSD (initials of Full Self-Driving or totally autonomous driving, the software that deals with driving assistance in Tesla vehicles).

The robotaxis, which were previously called Cyberercabs (Cibertaxis) and now they carry a logo of Robotaxi Printed, they currently have a series of restrictions. They operate Within a geovable area of ​​Austinavoiding highways, airports and complex intersections. Nor do they do it bad weather and the paths are made with A security monitor that occupies the passenger seat and that can react to a danger situation by clicking a safety switch. Tesla is also using follow -up cars and remote drivers as additional support, although not in all cases.

Explained the context, we go with the failures that the long promised autonomous driving of Tesla is committing in its robotaxis that follow carefully from Reddit in these first days of the service.

Some are relatively lower, such as not recognizing a UPS truck that turned back while trying to park or get on a curb. Others are more worrying, such as circulate briefly in the opposite direction or leave passengers in the middle of a very busy intersection.

Other incidents include the call Ghost brakingwhen the robotaxi stops for no apparent reason. The Tesla environment perception system, Only with camerashe has long had problems with this phenomenon, apparently because misunderstand shadows, road marks or other environmental factorswhich activates the emergency automatic braking of the car. The Reddit list, which includes videos of each reported event, includes 3 incidents of this type. Is the following:

  • The Robotaxi invades the opposite lane.
  • The passenger clicks ‘stop’; The Robotaxi stops in the middle of an intersection and the passenger lows while the vehicle blocks the intersection for a few moments.
  • The passenger clicks ‘stop’ and the car stops in the middle of the road. The security monitor has to call the support for the car to move again.
  • The Robotaxi does not detect the back lights of the driver of a UPS truck and keeps trying while approaching, until the security monitor stops it manually.
  • The Robotaxi cuts the passage to another car and slows without apparent reason, perhaps by the shadow of a tree.
  • The Robotaxi circulates at 42 km/h in an area limited to 24 km/h.
  • The Robotaxi slows unexpectedly, possibly due to the proximity of a police car.
  • The Robotaxi brakes unexpectedly making the passenger let the mobile fall.
  • The Robotaxi stops completely when approaching an object and then runs over it. The passenger says it was a shopping bag, although the car travels visibly up and down. Some users point out that the movement is due to a Badén located after the bag/object.
  • The Robotaxi passes over a curb in a parking lot.
  • The security monitor is changed to the driver’s seat to intervene.

Tesla has indicated that it is collecting comments from passengers to improve the service. Some of the first users have published their impressions in X and other social media, which is not surprising talking about influencers. Impressions are, consequently, good. Sawyer Merrittfor example, he said in X that he had no problems in his 20 journeys in two days: ‘Without interventions, without critical security problems. All my trips were soft and comfortable ‘he said.

Although experience is mainly positive and few incidents, we must not ignore that The listings have occurred with a very small number of vehicles, in less than a week and with very few hours of service.

Musk has affirmed that he wants thousands of vehicles in the streets in a few months and perhaps ‘one million’ by the end of next year. We will have to see what the list is like for then.