Tesla’s robotaxi rollout in Austin, Texas might not be off to a sterling start, and we’re not talking about the safety concerns reportedly raised by city officials a couple of weeks ago.
The long-awaited robotaxi service launched over the weekend in Austin, available only to a select group of riders. The price? A fixed $4.20 — hahaha, get it? Weed. Just days after the launch, videos surfaced online that appear to show the autonomous vehicles making troubling driving decisions.
About seven minutes into this video, for instance, a robotaxi briefly drives on the wrong side of the road, toward oncoming traffic. At about 21 minutes, it seemingly runs over a curb at the destination.
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Another video posted to YouTube appeared to show a robotaxi braking hard for parked police vehicles off to the side of the road. Yet another showed a robotaxi speeding by a significant margin.
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While Mashable can’t independently verify the authenticity of these videos, they’ve attracted the attention of federal transportation authorities.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reached out to Tesla on Monday about videos that show the robotaxis potentially breaking traffic laws, as Bloomberg first reported.
“NHTSA is aware of the referenced incidents and is in contact with the manufacturer to gather additional information,” NHTSA said in a statement, via TechCrunch. “NHTSA will continue to enforce the law on all manufacturers of motor vehicles and equipment, in accordance with the Vehicle Safety Act and our data-driven, risk-based investigative process. Under U.S. law, NHTSA does not pre-approve new technologies or vehicle systems — rather, manufacturers certify that each vehicle meets NHTSA’s rigorous safety standards, and the agency investigates incidents involving potential safety defects.”
NHTSA further said it would assess the reports of any incidents and take action from there.
So while robotaxis have launched in Austin, it might be worth keeping track of how it goes from here.