Tesla has been in the news for the launch of its Robotaxis in the US, and at the day of the launch, everything possible went wrong for the carmaker. One could call it chaos, as there were multiple problems, and Dan O’Dowd, the Founder of The Dawn Project, was quick to point out what happened.
Dan O’Dowd on Tesla Robotaxis
O’Dowd criticised Tesla for this public stunt, saying that “Tesla’s “launch” was limited to a handful of its most loyal Cult members who were given rides around a small area of Austin.” The Dawn Project analysed the trip taken by a few notable people and revealed the following data.
In one instance, the Robotaxi was to take a left, but it ‘panicked’ and ended up driving on the wrong side of the road, despite having enough place to correct itself. In another instance, the self-driving Tesla taxi braked twice for a stationary police car, which could have resulted in an accident.
Two passengers on different rides requested the Robotaxi to pull over safely and them out, but it abruptly stopped in the middle of the road, while another complained that the Robotaxi turned on the hazard lights for no reason.
Tesla Robotaxis — More details
On the day of its launch, Robotaxis committed four safety critical errors in a full day, while a Tesla employee sat in the car all along, keeping “thumbs hovering over the door release button”. Also, O’Dowd pointed out to a post by by Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI, showed that Tesla’s Supervised Robotaxis had driven about 500 miles, and in these 500 miles, the Supervised Robotaxis made two known safety critical errors — driving on the wrong side of the road and phantom braking.
With mounting concerns from day one, Musk’s statement of “having a thousand Robotaxis in a few months” means that 1,000 Supervised Robotaxis would commit 400 critical errors in a full day of driving, according to the founder of The Dawn Project.
