Months after Tesla launched its robotaxis in Texas, riders are still reporting major issues. One passenger who calls himself a “Tesla ambassador” recently had a nightmarish ride in Austin.
Reggie Overton documented his experience on X. He said he requested a Tesla robotaxi and was quoted a 66-minute ride for 2.3 miles. Certain it was a bug, he called Tesla support. After some back-and-forth, Overton was told the ride could not be rerouted. He ultimately had to change his destination to get out of the robotaxi and call an Uber.
“For a 2.3-mile trip, this was an incredibly frustrating experience especially when support had no way to correct what was clearly a routing problem,” Overton posted on X. Tesla later issued Overton a refund.
Tesla’s robotaxi launch hasn’t gone smoothly. Since the limited launch in Austin last summer, users have reported massive wait times, wrong drop-off points, and other issues. Tesla also previously put out a wildly inconvenient service map for Austin that at least made CEO Elon Musk laugh.
Tesla’s robotaxi rides are available in limited areas of Miami, Orlando and Tampa in Florida and Austin, Dallas and Houston in Texas. Musk predicted months ago that Tesla would “have autonomous ride-hailing in about half the population of the US by the end of the year.” (Meanwhile, this editor can report she’s never seen a driverless Cybercab in Austin, but many, many driver-filled ones, presumably still in their testing phases. It’s almost September.)
Tesla is holding an invitation-only launch party for the Cybercab in Austin on Sept. 3. Time will tell if the company can catch up to Waymo in the robotaxi game.