Tesla has expanded the service space of its Robotaxi service in Austin, and it did so to attract a penis-shaped service map, seemingly for no different motive than to fulfill the juvenile humor of its CEO, however what it actually achieved is as an instance how unserious Tesla’s Robotaxi enterprise is in comparison with different efforts.
Final month, Tesla launched its Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, and as anticipated, the service was largely for present and to present CEO Elon Musk a win after years of failed predictions relating to Tesla’s self-driving efforts.
The service was launched just for a small group of Tesla inventory promoters on X, and it required a Tesla worker sitting within the entrance seat with a finger on a kill change always.
In different phrases, it’s principally Tesla’s Supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) in client automobiles, however with the supervisor moved from the driving force’s seat to the entrance passenger seat.
Tesla additionally launched right into a small space of South Austin, however final week, Musk mentioned that the corporate would develop the service space by the weekend.
Late on Sunday, Tesla did replace the service space, and it now appears like this:
There’s no sensible motive to cowl this particular part of Austin. The replace seems to be solely to fulfill Musk’s famously juvenile humorousness, which incorporates fascinations with the numbers “69” and “420”.
Tesla has additionally been providing rides in Robotaxi (invite-only) for $4.20 a journey.
In observe, what this joke does is illustrate simply how unserious Tesla’s Robotaxi effort is compared to different autonomous ride-hailing packages.
Waymo already operates a bigger space of Austin, and it does so with none supervisor contained in the automobile. It additionally operates in San Francisco, the Bay Space, Los Angeles, and Phoenix:
Tesla shareholders are holding on to the hope that Tesla will be capable of scale quicker, however Waymo has even launched in Atlanta since Tesla launched its restricted service in Austin, and they’re getting ready to launch in Philadelphia and New York.
In the meantime, Tesla nonetheless operates with supervisors inside its automobiles – a step that Waymo accomplished years in the past.
Electrek’s Take
Look, I like a joke as a lot as the following man, however when the entire service is a joke, perhaps don’t draw a penis with the service map.
In China, I rode in Baidu’s Apollo Go, and it merely works with out anybody within the automobile, and it’s in operation in half a dozen cities.
It’s cool to see Tesla making progress right here, however what’s much less cool is the shifting of the goalpost that results in individuals forgetting that Tesla has promised unsupervised self-driving in all automobiles constructed since 2016.
In the meantime, its progress has but to outpace competitors and CEO Elon Musk is on the market claiming Tesla is the chief in self-driving with no shut second.
It’s a stage of delusion that you simply don’t need to see in somebody deploying “self-driving” 5,000-lb machines shifting at excessive speeds on public roads.
