Videos of robotaxi are rolling in and the Tesla fans riding it seem to like it

After plenty of delays (even as recently as this very morning), the first videos of Tesla’s Robotaxi rides are coming in and the Tesla fans that have been invited as early access users seem to have positive reviews already.

Tesla finally started operating a limited Robotaxi service today in Austin, Texas. The system is geofenced, time-limited, does not operate in inclement weather, and includes a “safety monitor” in the passenger seat and backup teleoperators, but it doesn’t include a driver in the driver’s seat, so it truly is a driverless taxi (well, unless you use Elon Musk’s definition).

The system is currently limited to the South end of Austin, as we can see in this short tour of the Robotaxi app. The Robotaxi app is currently invite-only, with invites sent primarily to about 20 Tesla fans, several of whom we heard make reference to a pre-briefing with Tesla going over the rules of the system. Those fans can bring +1s along for a ride, but only 2 passengers per ride allowed.

To order a Robotaxi, you must download a separate app, other than the normal Tesla app, and install it (through Apple’s TestFlight beta testing protocol). From there, as long as you are in the service area, you’ll have a car sent to you to pick it up. If you pick a destination outside the service area, the app will try to drop you off near the edge of the service area and tell you how much of a walk you’ll have to reach your actual destination.

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The area seems to be around 8 miles wide and 4 or so miles tall, so lets say somewhere around 30 square miles. That’s smaller than the area that Waymo covers in Austin, and doesn’t include the main downtown area North of the river, whereas Waymo does cover downtown (here’s the Waymo service area).

Tesla’s director of Autopilot/AI, Ashok Elluswamy, posted a shot of the “war room” where Tesla is monitoring the launch. A screen shows that 112 rides and 499 miles of driving were completed at the time of posting, for an average ride of about 4 miles (which is about as far as you can go in the small service area) – along with a number “35” which is hard to read (if it’s number of cars operating, then that’s much higher than the anticipated 10 cars – one safety monitor was asked how many cars are operating, and declined to answer).

It does seem likely that these stats must include operation before the Robotaxi’s official noon start time, as we think it’s unlikely 112 rides were completed in 15 minutes, when only about 20 people were reportedly invited to the program. So, either there are more cars or invitees than we know about, or employee ridership is included, or the baseline didn’t start at zero, or something of the sort.

The longest video we found is Chuck Cook’s video on his first Robotaxi experience, posted on twitter like most of the others we saw here (wouldn’t it be nice if they used something other than the worst video platform on the internet? oh well…). Cook attained some prominence for having a particularly difficult unprotected turn near his house, which he would routinely test new versions of FSD on and publish his results. His video, so far, seems to be the most complete one of a ride that I’ve seen.

When your car arrives, you’ll see a Tesla Model Y with nobody in the driver seat (but someone in the passenger seat, at least for now) and with pulsing exterior lights to signal that it is your vehicle. Unlike Waymo, Tesla doesn’t have any unique signage outside the vehicle to distinguish one vehicle from another, but given that there are few cars operating at the moment, this shouldn’t be much of an issue (Waymos can light up a sign with different colors and the initials of the person ordering it).

When you get in, you’ll find a lot of settings are carried over from your own Tesla ownership experience, as long as you’ve registered with your Tesla account within the app. Many riders pointed out that the music they were listening to in their cars showed up inside the Robotaxi when they got in. We imagine it might be able to, say, carry over your podcast progress or something of the sort, which would be a neat feature.

The screens inside the vehicle operate in a familiar manner, but the rear screen in the Model Y has some Robotaxi-focused interface differences. For example, there’s a “support” button which you can press to connect with remote help, just like in a Waymo (though the necessity of this with an actual, living person in the passenger seat seems lower). The support button seemed to have inconsistent response times, with some getting an immediate pickup, and some needing to wait for the better part of a minute.

The “safety monitor” in the passenger seat has access to buttons telling the car to pull over or to stop in the lane, but doesn’t have access to actual driver controls like steering wheel or pedals. Riders weren’t able to operate the front screen to see if things like Netflix, etc., are operational while the car is in motion.

The various Tesla fans who posted videos had plenty of experience in FSD-enabled vehicles, and the system seems to have similar capabilities but perhaps be on a different FSD build than public vehicles.

The ride seems smooth, and perhaps smoother than you might have experienced on some FSD builds. I’ve had a Model Y try to launch me off of speed bumps and dips in the road before, but the Robotaxi handled this one well

When dropping him off at Starbucks, Cook’s car encountered a human driver stopped in the middle of the lot, and after some moments of indecision, decided to turn and back into a parking spot in order to let him out of the car. Quite advanced behavior, I would say, and a more confident parking job than I’ve personally encountered in a Waymo.

When getting out of the car, you’re presented with a button to open the trunk if you used it, and instructions on how to open the car’s door. Tesla owners will know that first-time riders often have difficulty finding the button to release the door inside the vehicle (we mentioned this in our very first review of the Model 3), so those instructions are useful.

Finally, at the end, you’ll get a chance to rate your ride, and even leave a “tip”… but not really:

The riders we saw are all Tesla fans and/or investors, which on the one hand makes them less interested in criticizing the company, but on the other hand means they are quite knowledgable about the current capabilities and limitations of Tesla’s systems. The vibe we mostly got was positive, with the word “smooth” being bandied about readily.

The day seems to have been relatively drama-free so far, minus the significant competition over the operating vehicles from every invited user repeatedly ordering taxis all day, and the annoyance from tele-support personnel answering the phone for people who didn’t actually need help, but just saw a button they wanted to push.

Electrek’s Take

Well the day is finally here. After so many pushbacks, there are finally Teslas driving around on public roads with nobody in the driver’s seat.

So far, in the first few hours on a nice Austin day, shuttling a friendly audience around, there have been no problems we’ve seen yet. Some predicted immediate doom and gloom, but given the literal billions of miles that Tesla has under its belt with FSD, I would have been highly surprised to see things immediately go south. The stage was set for Tesla to get its launch, and its launch it got.

Now comes the work of continuing to improve, of opening the system up to a true public, of seeing when these vehicles can actually operate unmonitored, with nobody at all inside the vehicle (or watching from abroad). And of seeing what the incident rate works out to over a sample of more than 499 miles, if Tesla will ever release that data (it says it would “suffer financial harm” if forced to).

Launching in a state like this is one feat, but scaling is another. And then following through on the promise that you’ve been selling $15,000 software with for years – the promise that Tesla owners would have “appreciating assets.” So far, Tesla’s keeping that asset appreciation for itself.

Tesla has long stated that it would be able to scale faster than others, and given the number of cars out there and data that it holds, that may end up being true. But Tesla’s promises on full self driving have been proven wrong many times before, so there’s a lot of “wait and see” left on that front.

As of now, Tesla is still behind Waymo, by several years. But Waymo has also not been scaling particularly quickly, and certainly both are slower than a lot of techno-optimists would have liked. So we’ll have to see which tortoise wins this race – but we welcome Tesla finally stepping up to the start line.

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