Tesla Robotaxis Go Driverless in Austin

Tesla has begun offering unsupervised robotaxi trips in Austin, Texas, a milestone confirmed by recent video evidence and reposted by Elon Musk. This move signifies a shift as the company starts to remove safety monitors, a fallback previously considered essential due to safety concerns.

Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's VP for autonomy, clarified that this is a gradual rollout, starting with a few unsupervised vehicles integrated into the existing fleet. While Tesla claims this reflects confidence in its technology, critics remain skeptical, pointing to reported accidents and questioning the actual capabilities of their system.

This development positions Tesla against competitors like Waymo, which has a more extensive history with fully driverless operations and has accumulated over 100 million miles. Tesla's own Full Self-Driving system, still classified as Level 2, has seen billions of miles driven under supervision, a stark contrast to Waymo's fully autonomous achievements and expansion plans.

Despite Waymo's clear lead in operational mileage and paid rides, Musk maintains Tesla's advantage through its large customer fleet, anticipating future full autonomy. However, the reality for many Teslas on the road is a lack of necessary hardware for true self-driving capabilities.