The highly anticipated launch of Tesla’s Robotaxi service in Austin has not gone as planned. At first, the debut appeared promising, as the company’s stock price increased slightly. But the enthusiasm soon soured as the self-driving cars—which still need human “safety monitors” on board—began to draw unfavorable attention for all the wrong reasons.
Tuesday saw a sharp decline in Tesla’s stock, which fell more than 4% and lost almost $15 per share. The drop came after a string of widely shared videos that showed the self-driving taxis acting strangely and violating traffic laws. Within 20 minutes, a Tesla Robotaxi ran a red light, swerved into oncoming traffic, and repeatedly braked while driving close to police cars in one unsettling video. In another video, the car was seen veering across a double-yellow line after navigating an intersection with its steering wheel jerking uncontrollably.
Both the general public and government agencies took notice of the videos. In an already difficult rollout, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) confirmed to Bloomberg that it was looking into the incidents.
The addition of human monitors to the robotaxis was a surprising and unwanted development for a lot of investors. RBC Capital Markets analyst Tom Narayan pointed out that Tesla lost the chance to showcase a faultless demonstration of its autonomous capabilities. Narayan noted in a note provided to MarketWatch that the robotaxis’s success is essential to Tesla’s long-term expansion in the electric vehicle and self-driving industries. But given the continuous failures, he pointed out that the business has a difficult task ahead of it.
As Tesla struggles to improve its autonomous technology, rivals like Waymo keep growing their service offerings in new cities, further separating themselves from the massive electric vehicle manufacturer. Investors and customers alike are left wondering if Tesla’s Robotaxi program will ever fulfill its promised potential because its future is still unclear.
