Tesla’s self-driving robotaxis have finally hit the road – and their first, invite-only passengers are unsurprisingly impressed

• Tesla’s Robotaxis are up and running in Texas, Austin
• Most online reactions have been positive so far
• You can only get rides with special invites for now

It’s been quite a wait, but the Tesla robotaxi service has now launched in limited form, ferrying its first passengers around Austin, Texas with fully automated self-driving technology and no human cab drivers.

The news was announced across various social media channels, including @Tesla_AI, and follows years of testing and teases from Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk. However, it’s a very limited launch for now: you need to be invited to try out the service, and it only covers a specific part of Austin, a region that’s been thoroughly mapped by Tesla’s software.

While there’s no human driver, each robotaxi comes with a Tesla employee sitting in the passenger seat, ready to shut down the car if it gets into trouble.

Rides are charged at a flat fee of $4.20 (around £3.15 / AU$6.60), with everything handled through the Tesla app. Musk has said the service will expand to other cities and reach the milestone of 1,000 vehicles in the coming months. So while it’s good to see the service launch, I’ll be shelving my Knightrider dreams for a little while yet.

There’s also a brand new robotaxi page on the Tesla website, giving details of the service. Tesla is betting big on the robotaxi service as a future revenue stream, and there have even been hints that Tesla owners will eventually be able to rent out their cars as robotaxis, earning money while they’re not otherwise being used.

For now though, the service is a long way behind Waymo, which launched in San Francisco three years ago, and also operates in Austin, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Waymo cabs don’t have a member of staff present in the car, but the vehicles are all monitored remotely in case of any issues.

Positive reactions – and some issues

Most of the robotaxi reactions arriving on social media have been very positive: the service apparently works very well, both during the day and at night, with a smooth passenger experience that reportedly beats what Waymo is offering.

However, it’s worth noting that most people who’ve been invited to use the robotaxi rides are Tesla owners, supporters, and investors. Check back through the social media accounts of people posting positively about their robotaxi rides, and you’ll see there’s plenty of pro-Tesla sentiment.

That’s not a reason to dismiss these reactions, but it’s important context. One of the clips circulating shows a robotaxi trying to swerve into the wrong lane, which it’s prevented from doing. A clip posted to Reddit, meanwhile, shows issues with unnecessary braking, though it seems the robotaxi guardrails are working.

There are now plenty of extended videos showing rides being taken in the robotaxis, with no obvious problems or issues. For the time being, rides can be hailed between the hours of 6am and midnight, and the Tesla app takes care of syncing data such as music playlists from passenger phones to the vehicles.

If you want to read more positivity around the Tesla robotaxi, head to Elon Musk’s feed on X – you’ll see phrases such as “smooth as butter” and even “the beginning of post-driving civilization”. There are a lot of technological and regulatory hurdles to overcome as Tesla’s robotaxi service grows, but it is now at least operational.

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