Tesla launches robotaxi rides in Austin with big promises and unanswered questions

Tesla began to provide horseback riding at Model Y Suvs in Austin, after a decade after the CEO Elon Musk began making – and countless promises about his company’s ability to launch such a service.

The driver will become the first big test for Musk’s belief that it is possible to publish entirely independent vehicles using only cameras and Amnesty International to one side-a approach that differs from other players in space such as Waymo.

On Sunday, many joint videos on social media as well as sources in the city have confirmed what Musk was harassing months ago: that horseback happens recently, in fixed fees of chance amounting to $ 4.20 per trip.

Tesla sent early arrival invitations last week to the customers who were examined, who were able to download and use the new Robotaxi app on Sunday to ride. The number of people who received this invitation is not clear. But posts on the social media platform in Musk show that many of them went to the highest supporters of Tesla on the Internet.

In addition to the new Robotaxi information page published on the Tesla website on the web on June 22, the invitations confirm that the service will work every day from 6:00 am to 12:00 am, but “may be limited or not available in the case of stormy weather.” In particular, the Tesla employee will sit in the right front passenger seat as a “safety screen”.

The Robotaxi Information page also includes instructions on downloading the application, how to report a lost element, and the general rules of passengers. It still shines about the type of details provided by the AV-owned company, which runs a commercial robot in Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin-historically.

The Robotaxi service will be small, according to Musk. The first fleet will be about 10 or so on the YVS 2025 2025 models that operate in a narrow -specific area in South Austin. This is in line with a direct account by Ed Nedermeier, the author of “LudicRous, the uninhabited story of Tesla Motors”, which is located in Austin to monitor the Robotaxi program. (Nedermeyer is a co -host of AutonoCast with Techcrunch Kirsten Korosec Editor.)

Neidermeyer found what appears to be the Tesla Robotaxi warehouse – an unwanted car park scattered in trees near Oltorf Street in South Austin. On the day before it was launched, many YS driver have discovered – always with an employee behind the steering wheel – enters and out of the car park. Other groups of other Tesla Model Y, most of which are with manufacturer’s plates, were also parked there.

This morning, Tesla Model y has discovered brands, this time with an employee in the front passenger seat, leaving the reservation area. And note that one of the branded robots, which have not yet picked a passenger, suddenly hit his wallet twice separately – once in the middle of the intersection. It is not clear why the car acted in this way. However, in a video clip, TECHRUNCH watched it since it was posted on YouTube, both cases occurred as Tesla was passed by police vehicles that were present in the road parking lots.

Information gaps

Before launch, Musk Musk participated in Tesla Robotaxi launches in a few interviews and publications on X. So far, all information was provided about the release of Robotaxi almost by the company’s largest supporter.

In fact, Tesla actively tried to suppress information about the Robotaxi service. Tesla tried to prevent the request of general records of Techcrunch with the Ministry of Transport in Texas. The company also tried to prevent the city of Austin from meeting requests for records by Reuters, according to the news service.

“Tesla seeks to be as transparent as possible, as shown below, some required information can not be issued because it is secret information, commercial secrets, and/or commercial information that was exchanged with TXDOT in conjunction with Techase Thailt.

One of the most interesting influence strategies is the company’s use of human safety screen.

It is not clear what role will this safety monitors play and how much, if any, they will have. These employees are likely to try to intervene if the program is about to do something wrong. But they may have access to a type of killing key that can stop the car if this happens.

Historically, self -government car companies such as Waymo and Cruise have tested their own self -driving technique through the presence of a human safety operator behind the steering wheel and the second engineer in the front passenger seat. In the end, this may be reduced to one person sitting in the passenger seat completely before removing it. This practice was traditionally performed during the test stage – not commercial operations.

Tesla does not use future compounds, called Cybercabs, which were unveiled on October 10, 2024. Instead, Tesla Model Y 2025 cars are equipped with Musk as a new version “not subject to supervision” of the full Tesla program.

Tesla will not use the camera inside the cabin while riding by horseback. The company says it will only be used if the contestant requests support or in the event of an emergency. The camera will be used after the riding “Confirm Robotaxi’s willingness for its next trip.”

Tesla encourages early access to take pictures and videos of their experiences, although she says it may “suspend or end the arrival of Robotaxi” if the bicycles are violating its bases, including “if they publish the content on the social media platform or a similar broker depicting a violation of these rules or the use of robotics.” (This includes cyclists who agree to not smoking, drinking, drinking alcohol, drug exposure, or robotics in relation to a crime.)

Musk and other Tesla executives praised the teacher on X, with Ashok Eluswamy, head of the company’s self -driving team, and posted a picture of the “Robotoxi Launch Party” from an unknown site.

Musk wrote: “Our congratulations to the Tesla_ai design teams and chips design on the successful Robotaxi launch !!

But at least one passenger on Sunday reported experience, as the support team had a distance in Tesla in some way. It is not immediately clear what happened during that trip, but this contestant himself later said that the trip was very smooth.