Tesla Robotaxi hits Austin streets, but video shows the self-driving cabs messing up already
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Bugs happen with any new rollout. But it’s downright hazardous when the latest rollout is a 4,400-lb self-driving cab with passengers onboard. Enter the Tesla Robotaxi. The EV automaker’s self-driving “Cybercab” and autonomous taxi service hit the streets of Austin, Texas, in a “low-key” launch, and the company’s stock responded well. But social media videos are already showing the self-driving Model Y cabs driving against traffic and breaking the rules of the road.
The Tesla Robotaxi rollout is in full swing, and the program already has a few hiccups
A video with nearly 23,000 views shows a Model Y decked out with Tesla’s Robotaxi kit queuing up in a left-hand turn lane in Austin, Texas. There’s no one in the driver’s seat, although the angle of the rear-view mirror shows a passenger with glasses and a ballcap. The Robotaxi continues its path toward the end of the turn lane as the center screen shows the Model Y’s intended path.
Nothing out of the ordinary there. However, a moment later, the Model Y can’t seem to make up its mind. The blue path slides from a left-hand turn to blasting across the intersection. While it’s an illegal correction, it’s arguably not the biggest driving faux pas a car could make, self-driving or otherwise.
But the Tesla Robotaxi then swerves left-to-right, opting to drive across the intersection instead of making the turn. But the self-driving Model Y drives around a lineup of stopped traffic by occupying an oncoming lane and driving the wrong way. Fortunately, there weren’t any cars in the Model Y’s path.
However, the brief wrong-way driving instance wasn’t isolated in Tesla’s Texas Robotaxi rollout. Another YouTube video shows one of the self-driving Model Y Robotaxis stopping in the middle of the road after it detected “stationary police vehicles outside its driving path.”
At first, the Model Y simply slowed as it passed the Ford Taurus and Explorer patrol vehicles with Austin Police Department markings. However, further down the road, the white Model Y stopped entirely for an APD Ford Explorer in a parking lot nearby. Still, the limited rollout of the self-driving Model Ys using Tesla’s latest Full Self-Driving (FSD) architecture hasn’t resulted in any documented crashes.
Check out the video short of a self-driving Model Y driving into an oncoming traffic lane below!
