When Tesla announced an expansion of its robotaxis to Dallas and Houston last month, some investors touted momentum for CEO Elon Musk’s mission to transform the electric-vehicle maker into an AI-powered, driverless-tech giant.
Reuters reporters who recently tested Tesla’s robotaxis in those cities, however, found them to be still in a beta-testing phase. The service was plagued by long wait times and sometimes no availability at all. Drop-off spots on some rides were far away from the rider’s destination.
Tesla did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
A reporter using the service in Dallas on a recent Monday afternoon spent nearly two hours to take what typically would be a 20-minute drive from the campus of Southern Methodist University to Dallas City Hall, about 5 miles (8.05 km) south on a major freeway.
At 4:55 p.m., the reporter requested a ride on the Tesla Robotaxi app, which works much like Uber, but was notified of “high service demand.” Around the same time, Uber showed an 8-minute wait for a 22-minute ride to city hall.
For the next half hour, the reporter tried booking a ride but continued to see either that high-demand message or one showing “no rides available nearby.” After 36 minutes of searching, a car showed up as available. The wait time was 19 minutes.
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After the reporter trying to travel to Dallas City Hall finally got picked up, the car opted not to take North Central Expressway, the main artery to downtown, and instead took nearly 35 minutes to travel on surface streets. The car dropped him at a parking lot a 15-minute walk from City Hall.
After the rider pushed a button for “support” inside the car, an agent responded that the area was “restricted,” even though it was inside the Dallas service area map that Tesla posted on social media last month. “We’re still in the beta version,” the agent said.
The reporter booked rides to two other locations downtown. Each time, the app showed that the car would drop off the passenger in an area that would require a walk of about 15 minutes to reach the destination. On a ride to a downtown farmers’ market, the robotaxi dropped off the reporter on the opposite side of a freeway and suggested he walk under overpasses strewn with trash and smelling of urine.
On another ride, the robotaxi failed to make a left turn four times. The turn was in front of a freeway off-ramp with “do not enter” signs — an unusual intersection that seemed to have confused the car. It instead continued straight and made right turns to double back around the block, but repeatedly missed the left turn.
The reporter described the situation to a remote attendant. Soon after, the car finally made the turn.
In Houston, Tesla is operating robotaxis in a small suburban area on the northwest side. Another Reuters reporter who recently tested the service on a weeknight was able to obtain one ride. When she tried a second time, the same car showed up as being 13 minutes away, but the app later canceled the ride.
She tried to find another car for the next 30 minutes but none were available. She ordered an Uber to her destination.
As a reminder, Tesla’s service only covers a tiny piece of Houston, up in the northwest part of Harris County, nowhere near most major destinations. The issue here, as is usually the case with Elon Musk, is overpromising and underdelivering. Remember when he said there’d be a million Tesla robotaxis on the streets by 2025? Yeah, we’re still waiting. Or at least Tesla investors still are, but they’re so far down the Muskian rabbit hole that it doesn’t matter. I personally think this is all a bunch of hype whose promises are mostly speculative, but what do I know. In the meantime, if you really want a ride in a Tesla robotaxi, better start booking it now. The Street has more.