This Tesla Robotaxi demo video is a mess.
Watch as the car makes a left turn from the wrong lane. The safety operator steps in, and the car comes to a stop… right in the middle of the intersection. Eventually, it completes the illegal left turn on red, which raises the question, what exactly is the safety operator there for?
Just a Terrible Driving Experience
From timestamp 4:34 to 5:19, the Robotaxi is blocking traffic. That’s about 45 seconds parked in the middle of an intersection, blocking traffic from two directions. That’s after the safety operator hit the kill switch, because the car tried to turn from a lane not marked for turns, ultimately running the red light.
It’s hard to imagine a worse performance short of an actual collision.
As usual, the Tesla Robotaxi program is invite-only. That means the influencers on board describe the ride as “impressive,” even after the car blocked traffic in the middle of an intersection following an illegal maneuver.
The Flaw of the Safety Operator Approach
Let’s break down what happens when the car tries to blow the signal. The safety operator sees something is wrong and hovers over the kill switch. The Robotaxi is cutting across traffic from the wrong lane, and the operator shuts it down.
The car stops quickly, but now it’s stranded in the worst possible place.
There are situations where a dead stop creates a bigger hazard than the original mistake. This is one of them. No wonder they are not deploying the Robotaxis on highways yet.
This whole approach would make more sense if the safety operator were in the driver’s seat, where they could tap the accelerator and quickly extricate the Robotaxi from the self-inflicted danger. That wouldn’t look as futuristic for the influencer hype videos, though.
To compound that problem, the remote operators clearly can’t react fast enough. The car sat in that intersection for 45 seconds. That is a long time when your vehicle is dead in the water and exposed to cross traffic.
A perfectly garbage performance. Am I being too harsh? Maybe. But it looks awful to me, and I don’t understand the folks praising it. Let me know if I’m the one missing something here.
Note from the editor’s garage: I initially described this Robotaxi as being “stopped mid-intersection after running a red light,” but an eagle-eyed reader comments, the word “after” is misplaced! The vehicle ultimately ran the red light, but it stopped mid-intersection before doing so. Updated my description, thanks. – Kay
