So much for the future of autonomous driving. Just 36 hours into Tesla’s Robotaxi debut in Austin, Reddit users have already compiled more than 11 separate videos of the cars making various public blunders. The full list is being updated here, and if you’re interested in seeing how well Tesla Full-Self Driving performs without a driver, it’s worth a scroll.
As a reminder, there are only about ten of these Tesla Robotaxis on the road in a small, geofenced area of Austin TX.
Let’s recap what they’ve managed to do in that short window of time.
Videos of Tesla Robotaxis Messing Up… From the First 36 Hours of Operations
- Robotaxi drives into oncoming lane
- Rider presses “pull over”, Robotaxi stops in the middle of an intersection, rider gets out while Robotaxi blocks intersection for a few moments
- Rider presses pull over and the car just stopped in the middle of the road. Safety monitor has to call rider support to get car moving again
- Robotaxi doesn’t detect UPS driver’s reverse lights (or the car reversing towards it) and continues to attempt to park, then safety monitor manually stops it
- Robotaxi cuts off a car, then randomly brakes (potentially because of an upcoming tree shadow?)
- Robotaxi going 26 in a 15
- Robotaxi unexpectedly brakes, possibly due to nearby police
- Robotaxi unexpectedly slams on brakes, causing rider to drop phone
- Robotaxi comes to a complete stop after approaching an object, then runs it over (rider says it’s a shopping bag, though the car visibly bump up and down)
- Robotaxi runs over curb in parking lot
- Safety driver moved to driver seat to intervene
A big thank you to danlev for curating this content, plus the users who added more videos in the comments! I only knew about 3 of these.
Generally speaking, the errors fall into three big and frustratingly predictable buckets:
Phantom Braking: Still Stomping the Brake for Shadows and Thin Air
Phantom braking is not new, but without a human in the driver’s seat to immediately override it, the problem escalates from mostly annoying to especially dangerous. An autonomous taxi slamming on the brakes for no reason in the middle of traffic isn’t just a jolt for the passenger, it’s a rear-end collision waiting to happen.
This is what happens when your entire self-driving suite is powered by cameras and neural network vibes.
Speeding: No, You Can’t Ask It to Slow Down
In several of the early clips, Tesla’s Robotaxi blithely ignores posted speed limits, sometimes doubling the posted speed.
It’s not like you can lean forward and say, “Hey, ease off the gas, I’d rather get there alive.” There’s no driver to nervously joke with, and no speed interface for on-the-fly human input for either the passenger or the Tesla employee sitting up front.
It just barrels along, because the code said so.
Optical Confusion: Plastic Bags, Shadows, Bright Sunlight
The sensor suite powering the Tesla seems to get startled by plastic bags and confused by strong sunlight. It hesitates at harmless objects, overcorrects for nothing, and behaves like a student driver second-guessing every turn.
Waymo, of course, solved this years ago… with a proper sensor stack that includes LiDAR, radar, and a healthy respect for Q/A testing.
Tesla, instead, insists on a camera-only solution that struggles to distinguish between reality and a glitch in its training data. Bold strategy, not sure I love the idea of the only thing standing between me and hitting oncoming traffic at 30MPH being a couple of webcams.
An Astonishingly High Error Rate, Right Out of the Gate
There are reportedly around ten Robotaxis running in Austin right now.
And yet, in 36 hours, we’ve seen them speed, hesitate, stop short, drive over curbs, and block fire lanes. At this point, I’m wondering how many errors that the Tesla influencers are editing out of their videos or choosing to not post. Speaking of which…
Controlled Rollout for a Controlled Narrative
It’s not just the driving that’s being curated with a small number of Robotaxis in operation… it’s the messaging. Tesla seeded these early rides to influencers who are, to put it kindly, not exactly independent thinkers.
Many of them have gone out of their way to refuse interviews with journalists, choosing instead to broadcast on Twitter exclusively. That just so happens to be the platform where Tesla CEO Elon Musk financially rewards engagement.
The whole thing feels less like a product launch and more like a branded content campaign that accidentally involves moving two-ton vehicles on public roadways.
Reddit’s Doing the QA
This isn’t just a bad rollout. It’s a wildly premature one. The phantom braking alone highlights the need for a safety driver who is actually in the driver’s seat to press the accelerator and counteract dangerous autonomous braking.
The vehicle’s behavior is clearly not ready for unsupervised public operation. The problem isn’t just a software bug here or there. It’s the fundamental fact that Tesla’s system is incomplete and being propped up by carefully managed PR, handpicked users, and the thinnest veneer of operational readiness.
Thankfully, Reddit appears more than happy to pick up the slack where Tesla’s quality assurance left off.
