Tesla's robotaxi service has started testing in Austin without drivers in advance of its promised June launch, according to the company. "For the past several days, Tesla has been testing self-driving Model Y cars (no on in driver's seat) on Austin public streets with no incidents," CEO Elon Musk posted on X. "A month ahead of schedule."
Earlier this year, Tesla promised to launch its robotaxi service sometime in June, using an internal fleet of 10 to 20 Model Ys operating in a limited, geo-fenced part of Austin with remote human assistance. The level of human assistance (teleoperation) isn't clear, but there are fears based on Tesla's recent history that human operators may be used to cover up any technical deficiencies in Tesla's self-driving vehicles.
A recent Bloomberg report was more specific about the launch date with paid customers, putting it at June 12. However, reports earlier this month indicated that Tesla had yet to even start testing without drivers as of mid-May, so it would only have a few weeks of testing before a commercial launch.
On top of that, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is still in the dark about many details around the service. "The agency would like to gather additional information about Tesla's development of technologies for use in 'robotaxi' vehicles to understand how Tesla plans to evaluate its vehicles and driving automation technologies for use on public roads," the NHTSA wrote in a May 8 letter to Tesla.
That information is key for public safety, because Tesla will only be using camera-based systems and not LiDAR and radar sensors like Waymo and other robotaxi operators. In a recent analyst call, Elon Musk said that the Model Y robotaxi vehicles would be the same as Model Y vehicles sold to the public. "There's no change to it," Musk said (before being contradicted by Tesla's Autopilot software director).
No other details were released, but the upcoming service is certainly of critical importance to the automaker given flagging Tesla EV sales, particularly in Europe. CEO Elon Musk famously staked the future of Tesla on robotaxis, reportedly even canceling a budget EV to focus on that service.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/tesla-says-it-has-been-testing-driverless-model-ys-in-austin-for-several-days-123037251.html?src=rss https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/tesla-says-it-has-been-testing-driverless-model-ys-in-austin-for-several-days-123037251.html?src=rssMelden Sie sich an, um einen Kommentar hinzuzufügen
Andere Beiträge in dieser Gruppe

It's hard to look at Apple's new "

If you weren't paying close attention to Apple's

Welcome to Video Games Weekly on Engadget. Expect a new story every Monday, broken into two parts. The first is a space for short essays and ramblings about video game trends and related topics

Nearly two years after launching Threads, Meta is finally giving in to users on one of the most requested features for the service: direct messaging. The company is beginning to test a dedicated in

There's a new (ish) retro console on the block. The ModRetro Chromatic had a soft launch last year but is now "permanently in stock" for consumers. This is another machine that runs Game Boy and Ga

It’s easy to feel the pressure in the run-up to Father’s Day. Finding a gift that encapsulates all of the gratitude, love and appreciation you feel toward them is a high-pressure task. Thankfully,

OpenAI has inked a deal with Google to begin using the latter's cloud service to mee