This is an important milestone for Tesla investors (assuming the story is as reported).
Either the AI is truly sentient - as promised - in its highway driving or this is good old-fashioned incompetence.
I’m gonna go with the latter.
But, earnings release (April 22) is an important time, gotta make sure line goes up.
Is turning right on red an edge case?
Why would anyone question Tesla product announcements? Or their robotaxi capability and reliability?
After two hours, Ramos got a robotaxi from a nearby Bank of America parking lot. He said the car handled city driving smoothly, even though it had some difficulty reading signals, like failing to realize that it could turn right at a red light.
He said the trip took a turn when the vehicle missed an exit and entered a highway. Traffic was going at 80 to 90 miles per hour, he said. At first, the robotaxi began picking up speed to keep up with the other cars, until suddenly, it started to slow down, as if it were preparing to pull over. That’s when Ramos said he started to feel unsafe.
“There are cars flying by us. You don’t pull over on the highway unless it’s like a super emergency or something,” he said.
He said a Tesla representative appeared to take over the car and kept it moving in the “slow lane” until it was guided off the highway.
From there, the ride continued — and so did the plot twists. The car missed its final destination, took him to the wrong location, and then got stuck circling a hotel before support stepped in to redirect it.