Elon Musk’s grand entrance into the robotaxi market has already hit serious regulatory speed bumps as early, limited testing crops up in Austin, Texas.
Videos circulated in recent days on the internet showing Tesla robotaxis behaving erratically — including driving into oncoming traffic or coming to a sudden stop — have caught the attention of federal safety regulators and called into question Musk’s long-held vision of a fully autonomous future.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Tuesday that it had contacted Tesla to request further details on the crashes, and exchange information.
For all the videos of the robotaxis working perfectly, the reported hiccups raise serious concerns about the safety and reliability of Tesla’s self-driving software, especially as Musk pushes for wide deployment.
Critics, including some experts in vehicle technology, say the current public tests should be stopped because the system’s “highly erratic performance” makes it inappropriate to transport the public without trained safety drivers.
One vide in particular was especially alarming, showing a Tesla cruising into a left turn only lane before driving straight through an intersection and into extreme cross-traffic. Another caught a robotaxi coming to a sudden stop in front of no obvious impediment.
These events occur against a backdrop of uncertainty in the wider regulatory environment for AVs. The regulatory situation in the U.S. is ripe for widespread deployment, though fragmented, state-by-state regulation still needs to be navigated.
While nations such as China, Japan and Singapore are embracing the testing of Level 4 and 5 autonomous vehicles and supporting them with government policies, the overall industry is still debating what those standards are going to be, especially when it comes to safety and liability.
The stakes are also very high for Tesla. Shares in the company dipped when news broke of the NHTSA inquiry, despite an initial spike when it announced its robotaxi launch.
Bullish analysts say any problems will be fixed, but the scrutiny underscores just how daunting the task of moving beyond more advanced driver-assistance systems to fully driverless operation remains.
Musk has maintained that Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, which powers these robotaxis, is safer than humans and that the service will grow quickly.
However, players like Google-backed Waymo and Amazon’s Zoox, which utilise a different tech stack, have already racked up millions of those paid autonomous rides, proving a substantial head start in navigating the technological and regulatory labyrinth. As the robotaxi competition heats up, Tesla will have to persuade both regulators and the public that its technology is not just cutting-edge, but safe and dependable.