So a couple of influencers were able to test some unsupervised robotaxis in Austin. It was basically a comedy of errors (or would be a comedy if it wasn’t so dangerous).
The video is two hours long, so I’ve listed out some of the dangerous maneuvers and bugs below. If robotaxi were a student driver, no doubt they would have failed their driver’s test, especially when they went the wrong way down a one-way street and made a left against a red left arrow.
34:30 - Robotaxi goes the wrong way against a “one way do not enter” sign. If robotaxi were a student driver it would have failed its driver test right then.
55:50 - Robotaxi stops in the middle of a lane in the parking lot, blocking traffic. Guy from car behind has to get out of his car to try and tell the robotaxi to get out of the way.
58:50 - Robotaxi screen gets locked on the final screen of the ride even though they are still driving.
1:11:30 - Screen still locked. Driving around aimlessly in a parking lot.
1:13:00 - Misses drop off point driveway.
1:13:30 - Screen still locked. They get caught in an endless loop where the robotaxi keeps missing the drop off point.
1:23:00 - Robotaxi gets stuck at a stop sign. Remote driver has to take over.
1:25:45 - Riders asked to be dropped off at Harbor Freight but get dropped off a long ways away at Wells Fargo. Riders mention that they looped around 4 times before being dropped off and were remote driven twice.
1:31:00 - Robotaxi gets stuck after riders get out. Car has to be rebooted and remotely driven away.
1:39:00 - Riders get dropped off at wrong location again.
1:43:00 - Robotaxi takes circuitous route.
1:46:00 - Robotaxi gets in left turn lane when needs to go straight and then takes a left on a red left arrow. Another student-driver test fail.
1:51:00 - Robotaxi swerves between lanes. May be being remotely driven.
1:53:00 - Robotaxi pulls off highway into parking lot then immediately pulls sideways right into middle of the lane blocking traffic from both directions. Other cars start going around robotaxi. Riders contact support to try to get the robotaxi to move out of traffic but are told the ride is over and to get out.
1:56:00 - Riders try to get one last ride, but robotaxi pulls up, pulls over, and ride gets canceled on them.