The launch of Tesla’s robotaxi in Austin, Texas, in late June marks the first major step toward Elon Musk’s ambitious vision of a fleet of robotaxis, which was first proposed almost ten years ago. Although it has drawbacks, this milestone represents the company’s plans for a future in which all Tesla vehicles may be converted into autonomous ride-hailing services. Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology is far from flawless, even though it has been hailed as the next big advancement in autonomous driving.
Tesla’s FSD software continues to make human-like mistakes, casting doubt on Musk’s claim that it can outperform human drivers, who are frequently distracted or exhausted. The technology still has a lot of problems, despite the fact that Tesla super bulls like Dan Ives and Cathie Wood believe it could be a trillion-dollar market. Tesla’s FSD only uses cameras, in contrast to its rivals like Toyota, who also use LiDAR (light detection and ranging). According to Musk, LiDAR is “expensive and unnecessary,” and it is “worthless on the car.”
However, Tesla’s robotaxi may have had trouble navigating intricate urban environments due in part to this lack of LiDAR. Recent videos have revealed the robotaxi making risky errors, such as swerving into oncoming traffic after missing a turn, despite its spectacular debut. The car made multiple driving mistakes in a short period of time, and in its first week, a “safety concern” was recorded in Austin’s AV incident database. The CEO of Green Hills Software, Dan O’Dowd, pointed out that Tesla’s FSD has been in far more accidents than those of other manufacturers—more than 2,000—and asked if the technology is ready for general use.
Musk asserts that the fleet of supervised robotaxis uses a more sophisticated form of FSD, but it is still unclear how well the technology can handle typical traffic scenarios. A recent video demonstrated the limitations of the technology by showing a Cybertruck swerving into the wrong lane. Resolving these problems is essential to Tesla’s future success as a trillion-dollar technology.
