In one video, Herbert Ong, who runs a fan account, marveled over the speed of the vehicle and the ability to park autonomously. Another influencer with the @BLKMDL3 handle on X said the trip was “smoother than a human driver.” Sawyer Merritt, a Tesla investor who runs an account focused on the company, called the experience “awesome.”
With no kickoff event and little in the way of formal announcements, Tesla has relied largely on word of mouth and media coverage ahead of the robotaxi launch, which comes about a decade after Musk began talking about the possibility. The unveiling was uncharacteristically low-key for a company that held a “Cyber Rodeo” to mark a Texas factory opening in 2022 and an invite-only party near Hollywood last year to unveil autonomous products.Musk is reorienting the carmaker around hyped-but-still-unproven technologies including self-driving vehicles and humanoid robots. Some investors are counting on new markets to revive Tesla following a sales slump and consumer backlash against the chief executive officer. Its shares have tumbled 20% this year.
“Robotaxis are critical to the Tesla investment case,” Tom Narayan, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said in a note. About 60% of Narayan’s valuation for the shares is attributable to the self-driving vehicles.
The videos of the robotaxi launch posted Sunday were largely mundane, showing Model Y SUVs driving short distances, navigating intersections, avoiding pedestrians and parking — albeit with no one sitting in the driver’s seat. There were some hiccups, like when one streamer tested a button to have the vehicle pull over and it instead briefly stopped in the middle of a road before the vehicle began moving again.
The first riders are being charged a flat rate of $4.20 per trip, Musk said Sunday, though it’s unclear what pricing will look like longer term. Robotaxis will be available between 6 a.m. and midnight daily within a geofenced area of the city, not including the airport, according to terms of use that some early riders posted. Service may be limited or unavailable in foul weather.
The launch marks a crucial test for Tesla, which is using only 10 to 20 vehicles at first. It’s aiming to show it can safely and successfully navigate real-world traffic, which has tripped up some other companies and brought regulatory scrutiny.
Cruise, the now-defunct autonomy business of General Motors Co., grounded its fleet in late 2023 and had its operating license suspended in California following an accident that injured a pedestrian. Uber Technologies Inc. ceased testing self-driving vehicles after one of its SUVs struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona in 2018. Less than three years later, the company agreed to sell its self-driving business.
While Tesla hasn’t said when the robotaxi service will open to the general public, Musk has pledged to scale up quickly and expand to other US cities in the near future.
The company faces a crowded market in Austin. Waymo, which is owned by Google parent Alphabet Inc., is scaling up in the city through a partnership with Uber. Amazon.com Inc.’s Zoox is also testing there.
Dan Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities who rates Tesla outperform, said he expects robotaxis to be competitive with Waymo from the start. After a member of his team rode in one Sunday, the analyst told Bloomberg the robotaxi user experience was “better than expected.”
Read Also: Tesla hikes Model X price by $5,000 in US, follows earlier increase on Model S and Canada lineup
Discover more from News Hub
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
