Movies Present Tesla Robotaxis Swerving, Onerous-Braking for Cops in First Day of Austin Launch

Elon Musk’s Tesla launched its driverless “Robotaxi” service in Austin, Texas, on Sunday to the over-the-top reward from its diehard followers who bragged about spending all day calling for rides. For everybody else, the entire thing ranged from extraordinarily underwhelming to complicated to downright harmful. Footage has already began populating on-line of Tesla’s driverless autos making confounding selections and infrequently messing up so unhealthy that they find yourself driving on the mistaken facet of the highway.

The latter was the case in what has been maybe probably the most viral fail of Tesla’s first days of operation on Austin’s roads, the place it will probably solely function in a small, geofenced area. In a video published by Tesla Daily, which exhibits a 20-minute trip within the backseat of the driverless (although monitored by an in-vehicle supervisor and remote drivers ready to intervene if wanted) Mannequin Y SUV. About seven minutes into the ride, the Tesla comes upon an intersection whereas within the turn-only lane. The wheel jerks a bit because the automobile drives straight by the intersection, ending up within the reverse lane of site visitors as soon as by the lights. It begins to appropriate, then opts to simply bypass the automobiles in entrance of it by driving by the no-passing zone traces and right into a flip lane, the place it lastly will get re-aligned.

In order that’s not nice.

It was not the one incident that riders skilled whereas behind the wheel of Tesla’s Day One rides. In a video uploaded by Farzad, the riders request an early drop off, which prompts the Robotaxi to come back to a whole cease in the midst of a four-way intersection and has everybody exit the automobile.

One other video uploaded by Edward Niedermeyer exhibits a Tesla Robotaxi needlessly braking exhausting and coming to a near-complete cease in the midst of the highway when it passes police autos, neither of which are literally on the road itself or require yielding.

Even smaller incidents reveal kinks that should be labored out. X consumer Mark Anthony shared a video exhibiting the contact display screen behind the automobile lagging, leading to an unintentional name to help when making an attempt to request a drop off. Different movies counsel pickups took longer than expected and the Robotaxi stopped for pickups at significant distances from the actual riders.

“Carry on operating, carry on operating”. – @TeslaBoomerMama as she watches @herbertong seek for his first Robotaxi stopped to choose him up in Austin. Herbert bought a couple of 1/4 mile of steps in however he lastly discovered the Robotaxi. pic.twitter.com/7yXfeSqraf

— Miss Jilianne (@MissJilianne) June 22, 2025

For a launch that was considerably restricted from what was initially promised—the Financial Times reported that the service launched with simply 10 automobiles on the highway and regardless of Musk’s own past claims that the necessity to geofence the place automobile can go means it’s not autonomous, Robotaxi is limited to a very small chunk of Austin and might’t go to the airport—there are already so main points on show in a small variety of precise miles pushed.

Tesla didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the launch. Austin’s Transportation and Public Works Division instructed Gizmodo, “Tesla is working with the Metropolis of Austin’s Autonomous Car Working Group, which incorporates workers from a number of Metropolis departments. The Metropolis treats every AV firm that expresses curiosity in Austin the identical, providing coaching alternatives and offering details about Metropolis right-of-way and procedures.”