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Tesla has officially shifted to fully unsupervised operations in Austin, Texas, with 170 monitored rides completed without a human safety monitor behind the wheel.
The project now involves 54 unique vehicles operating across the city. Elon Musk previously hinted at this transition, and the fleet is rapidly expanding into Dallas and Houston, where roughly 30 driverless units are already active. 🏙️
Early users are reporting significant operational hurdles that mar the experience. The main complaints include:
📍 Wait times stretching over an hour for short, 2-mile trips.
📍 Persistent missed pickups where the car fails to locate the rider.
📍 Inaccurate drop-off locations, often leaving passengers blocks or even miles from their intended destination.
This puts Tesla in a direct race against Waymo, which is currently operating its paid service in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. While Waymo relies on purpose-built Zeekr vehicles for its fleet, Tesla is attempting to achieve similar results using its standard consumer cars. The gap between the promise of autonomy and daily reality is currently quite wide. 📉
Self-driving convenience still feels like a gamble.
#Tesla #Robotaxi #AutonomousVehicles
The Verge
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