Musk Finally Launched His Robotaxi — Kind Of
The limited Austin rollout fell far short of the company’s pitch that a generalized, scalable solution is imminent.
Driverless?
Photographer: Tim Goessman/Bloomberg
For Tesla Inc., the distance between a disastrous robotaxi launch and a merely disappointing one was just a foot or two. The “safety monitor” who was sat in the front passenger seat of the handful of Tesla robotaxis that began operating in a limited part of Austin on Sunday was the contradictions of Elon Musk’s autonomous ambitions made flesh.
To be clear, it is sensible to have a human driver ready to intervene when robotaxis first get out on the road; just as Waymo LLC, owned by Alphabet Inc., did. Whether they sit in the actual driving seat or a short distance away on the passenger side makes little practical difference, provided they can still stop the vehicle or reach across and adjust the wheel if necessary.