By Abhirup Roy, Rachael Levy and Chris Kirkham
June 25 (Reuters)
According to Elon Musk, Tesla’s Robotaxi, that being the autonomous car, is safer than a human-driven car. Now, how true is that? Because it does not look that way anymore. We understand that automakers and engineers are trying out new developments, and one of them is self-driving vehicles. No one has really disputed that, although there have been quite a number of disputes and questions surrounding safety and how robots are not like human beings with instincts whenever an accident is about to happen, and they can quickly swerve their car to avoid hitting another.
Tesla’s robotaxi is causing a lot of safety problems on the road
A first public test of robotaxis by Tesla in Austin, Texas, led to multiple traffic problems and driving issues, videos from company-selected riders showed over the first few days. Chief Executive Elon Musk has tied Tesla’s financial future to self-driving technology, and with Tesla sales down, the stakes are high. He said Tesla would roll out the service to other U.S. cities later this year and predicted “millions of Teslas.”
The Tesla fans invited to the trial were strongly supportive and posted videos of hours of trouble-free driving, but issues drew questions from federal road safety regulators and auto safety experts. Issues included Tesla robotaxis entering the wrong lane, dropping passengers off in the middle of multiple-lane roads or at intersections, sudden braking, speeding and driving over a curb.
Dangerous activities that happened on the road
- One of the Tesla robotaxis entered the road, which is only meant for left turns.
- Swerved many times.
- One video showed the robotaxi just stopping in the middle of the road.
In one instance, a robotaxi drove into a lane meant for oncoming traffic for about 6 seconds. It had pulled into an intersection in its left-turn lane with its turn blinker on. Then the steering wheel wobbled momentarily, and instead of turning, it proceeded straight into the lane meant for oncoming traffic, prompting a honk from a car behind it.
In another incident, the car suddenly braked with no obstruction apparent in the video. The passenger jerked forward, and their belongings were thrown to the floor. In a third video, taken from another vehicle, a robotaxi abruptly stopped twice in the middle of the road while passing police vehicles with flashing lights.
Disappointment in what was deemed safer than human driving
Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-engineering professor and autonomous-technology expert, disappointedly expressed,
“This is awfully early to have a bunch of videos of erratic and poor driving. I was not expecting as many videos of problematic driving on the very first day,” he said. Tesla is testing about 10 to 20 robotaxis, which are standard Model Ys with advanced software, and has been giving rides since Sunday afternoon.”
“Dropping off people in the middle of a six-lane road or edge of a busy intersection when the traffic is going in the opposite direction is pretty dangerous. They definitely did not want to do this or be caught on camera.”
Musk, for years, has failed to deliver on promises that self-driving Teslas are just around the corner. Tesla rolled out the service for a flat fee of $4.20 to a limited number of handpicked riders. The service is not available to the broader public, and the robotaxis operate in a limited area and avoid difficult intersections and bad weather. So, what is next for the robotaxi Tesla and Elon Musk? As usual, they need to go back to the drawing board and find ways to fix this issue. Or rather, make it a vehicle that has some kind of human control over it and is not 100% independent.