A small-scale rollout of Tesla robotaxis began in Austin over the weekend, two days after Gov. Greg Abbott signed a new law meant to regulate autonomous vehicles.
The Standard’s Shelly Brisbin says there have already been a few incidents among the 20 or so robotaxis, many of them captured on video by invited riders. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: A lot of Austinites have become familiar with these Waymo driverless vehicles. Can you tell us about the Tesla robotaxis now operating on Austin streets?
Shelly Brisbin: The Waymos are very distinctive. They have sensors on the top. They’re painted in such a way that it’s very easy to tell that it is a robotaxi.
The Tesla vehicles, well, they’re just Tesla Model Ys with a sign on the side. Also, it’s a very limited number. There’s 10 to 20 Tesla cars. We don’t know the exact number on the street right now.
And those are providing rides to a limited number of Tesla influencers and other people on an invite-only list. It’s sort of a public rollout, but not really, at this point.
Well, Tesla’s rollout was controversial even before it began. Can you tell us why?
Well, part of it has to do with Elon Musk, the controversial CEO of Tesla, who has, over the years, promised a lot of things about robotaxis – first, that they would be cars that would be purpose-built, that wouldn’t even have a steering wheel, and that you wouldn’t need any sort of safety driver, and they would fully drive themselves.
And there were also a lot of instances in which he did not communicate fully about what to expect from these robotaxis in Austin, and didn’t want regulators to ask many questions.
And finally, the technology that Tesla uses: cameras versus the LiDAR sensors that the Waymo and other autonomous cars that we’ve seen use. And so there is a lot of uncertainty about the Tesla technology, which has had some issues in full self-driving mode for cars that are owned by individuals, as opposed to with taxis.
OK, so we don’t know a whole lot about these robotaxis, I would imagine, but what do we know about how it’s going after just a few days?
One advantage to having influencers as your beta testers is that they have been doing a lot of video.
So the folks who have been getting out there in their robotaxis have been documenting their progress. And we’ve seen some minor traffic incidents, crossing into left turn-only lanes and then going straight crossing double yellow lines. And there was one instance documented where a safety monitor sitting in the front of the car had to intervene to keep a Tesla robotaxi away from a UPS truck that was in the same lane.
So, so far, relatively minor incidents, but it’s only been a couple days, so it’s really hard to tell how this is going on a larger scale.
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Right now, state law prevents Texas cities from regulating autonomous vehicles on their streets, meaning Austin can’t say, “sorry, Tesla robotaxis, you can’t be here.” But there is a new state law coming into effect. What does that do?
That’s right. The governor signed a law passed by the Legislature at the end of the session. It will go in effect on Sept. 1.
And it basically says that autonomous vehicles – so this isn’t just robotaxis – have to obey traffic laws, both state and federal laws. They also have to have a recording device on board. And there has to be something to minimize risk.
In other words, if the car gets in trouble, there has to be a way to deactivate it so that it can’t continue moving forward.
I want to loop back to what we were talking about with the way these things look, because as you said the Waymo vehicles are clearly identifiable – they’re like laid in with these whirly things on the outside. And the robotaxis, as you’ve said, look much just like a regular Tesla.
Is that causing some concern? Are you hearing, as well, that just they sort of blend in a little more?
I don’t know that we can tell that yet. I think people that had concerns previously and see the Teslas out there are wondering about them because they’re unproven, basically.
So it’s not that they’re identified, it’s just that they are not as well-identified as Waymos. And in fact, the Tesla vehicles are operating in a different part of town than the Waymo vehicles.
Teslas are operating south of the Colorado River in Austin in the popular entertainment district, east of Zilker Park and going east toward I-35. Whereas Waymo vehicles are operating north near the University of Texas and a little further north, as well as in parts of South Austin where the Tesla robotaxis are operating.
