Tesla Robotaxi Videos Show Elon’s Way Behind Waymo
Video On Monday, Elon Musk proudly launched his often-promised Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, but early videos shot by riders show how far the service lags behind Waymo.
Back in 2019, Musk predicted that a million self-driving Tesla taxis would roam America’s streets by the next year. In fact, the service debuted in 2025 with reportedly around ten rebadged Model Y Teslas. Tesla limited operation to a geofenced section of Austin, and so far only operates in daylight. No sign yet of the concept Robovan Musk showed off at an event last year.
Tesla invited a select few influencers who are passionate supporters of Elon Musk’s car business to try the service. Although the resulting reviews were almost universally positive, the videos shot in the taxi show a passenger – described as a “safety monitor” – rode in the cars to provide tech support and perhaps to press an emergency stop button. Tesla priced all trips at $4.20, presumably as a reference to drugs.
User videos show the rides were smooth, albeit with a few glitches. YouTuber Dirty Tesla’s trip seemed to be going well until he asked the car to pull over in a safe location, whereupon it stopped in the middle of the street and turned its hazard lights on, which you can see at the 9:30 minute mark in the video below. The safety monitor had to contact technical support to get the car to the side of the road, and Dirty Tesla only ranked the trip three out of five stars.
Something similar happened to YouTuber Farzad Mesbahi, whose car stopped to drop him off in the middle of a crosswalk, blocking the junction. It eventually moved off under its own steam, as it were, as you can see below at 38:20.
Slightly more concerning was the experience of Rob Mauer, host of the Tesla Daily Podcast, as you can see at the 07:20 mark in the video he shot. The Tesla he was in starts to make a left turn, changes its mind and the steering wheel shakes, then it drives briefly down the wrong side of the street.
Contrast this with Waymo, spun out of the Google self-driving car project in 2016 and still owned by Google parent company Alphabet. It has been operating commercial rides in self-driving cars in San Francisco since 2023, and in Austin since March – no safety monitor required. No software is perfect, and Waymo has had its share of complaints about its vehicles, but its CEO said last month that the cars have made 10 million trips safely so far.
Meanwhile, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has told The Register that it has received reports of Tesla Robotaxis making mistakes and is investigating.
“NHTSA is aware of the referenced incidents and is in contact with the manufacturer to gather additional information. NHTSA will continue to enforce the law on all manufacturers of motor vehicles and equipment, in accordance with the Vehicle Safety Act and our data-driven, risk-based investigative process,” a spokesperson told us.
“Under US law, NHTSA does not pre-approve new technologies or vehicle systems – rather, manufacturers certify that each vehicle meets NHTSA’s rigorous safety standards, and the agency investigates incidents involving potential safety defects. Following an assessment of those reports and other relevant information, NHTSA will take any necessary actions to protect road safety.”
Just to note, this is a different investigation to the one the NHTSA is already carrying out on Tesla’s “Smart Summon” software, which lets drivers summon the cars to come to them autonomously – whereupon they sometimes hit objects along the way, according to the government watchdog.
On Tuesday, as if to rub things in a bit, Waymo announced a new partnership with Uber to bring its self-driving cars to Atlanta, or at least 65 square miles of the city. Waymo didn’t say how many cars it will deploy, but it currently has 100 on the road in Austin.
Elon therefore has a lot of catching up to do, particularly given the small fleet deployed in Austin. But that didn’t trouble fans of the stock, sending the price up around five percent on the week.
There’s certainly money to be made. A recent report showed that ,despite being significantly more expensive than either Uber or Lyft, a recent survey of Waymo passengers found 70 percent preferred riding in an autonomous car over having to deal with a human driver. ®
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