Tesla's Robotaxis Are About to Hit the Streets. No One Can Say They're Fully Safe.
Tesla's Robotaxi service will reportedly begin a heavily-monitored trial period by the end of the month on the streets of Austin, Texas.
The service will utilize a fleet of Tesla Model Ys equipped with newly updated software that allows for autonomous driving without supervision.
All Model Y Taxis will be geofenced to a limited area within downtown Austin.
Tesla's Robotaxi service (reportedly set to launch in Austin, Texas, by the end of June) seems to be generating more questions than answers for members of the public. This has become especially true as the company seeks to block the city of Austin from releasing public records surrounding the trial run for the program. According to Reuters, the city of Austin's Public Information Officer, Dan Davis, noted that a third party (Tesla) had requested to withhold the records to protect its privacy and property interests. Forbes recently reported serious safety concerns with the service.
A few years ago, we spoke with Missy Cummings, a former National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) adviser, about the potential dangers of many of these autonomous systems. As they continue to roll out in 2025, it turns out we still have plenty of questions.
Elon Musk's track record with full self-driving is questionable at best. Tesla's technology has yet to master Level 2 autonomous driving, let alone the much more advanced Level 4 capabilities required for an automated taxi.
To be fair, Level 4 systems—which can intervene in the event of a system failure, eliminating the need for human supervision—is rare. Waymo is one of the only companies to successfully roll out a package that can reliably fulfill Level 4 autonomous driving capabilities so far, and the technology is still legally required to operate only within limited areas for the foreseeable future. As a result, ridesharing in major cities is currently the most attractive use case for these vehicles. At present, the United States only allows up to Level 2 autonomous driving on the open road, citing security concerns.
Tesla's current Full Self-Driving (FSD) program only being a Level 2 system means that it is capable of driving the car only with human supervision behind the wheel. We've laid out all five self-driving 'levels' below to explain the gaps between the capabilities of every autonomous system you could come across.
The lowest level of driver assistance, Level 1 programs automate one driving system, such as steering, braking, or accelerating. Cruise control is an excellent example of a Level 1 system, as it automates acceleration while still requiring some level of human interaction.
The secondary level of driver assistance, which are often referred to as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), can control steering alongside accelerating and braking. ADAS still needs a human being in the driver seat to intervene should something go wrong. Tesla's Full Self-Driving and General Motors' Super Cruise are both current examples of Level 2 ADAS.
Known as conditional driving automation, Level 3 presents largely the same capabilities as Level 2, but with the added ability to detect environmental factors and make informed decisions. The experience is fairly similar to a Level 2 system, but behind the scenes, Level 3 is a technological quantum leap. Audi's A8L is currently one of the only vehicles capable of Level 3 automation, but the United States only allows up to Level 2 on the open road.
The real meat and potatoes of Level 4 is that it can intervene on its own if things go wrong. Thankfully, many of the Level 4 vehicles retain a panic button of sorts as a last resort. Until legislation evolves with the technology, these vehicles are currently only allowed to operate within a limited area. Many of these programs opt to be used within the city limits, as speeds are low and an accident often yields little consequence.
As you might expect, the top level of driving automation will make no mistakes and offer maximum efficiency. It doesn't exist yet, but if it did, the vehicles theoretically wouldn't need a steering wheel or pedals. They would also be free to operate wherever you would want to drive.
The trial will gradually and safely release Robotaxis onto the city streets of Austin, Texas. Musk noted that the program will start with 10 vehicles driving pre-determined routes around the Capitol building, and steadily expand to (potentially) thousands of vehicles, as long as things go smoothly. It's unclear who defines exactly what 'smoothly' means in this case, but we do know that the city of Austin has zero ability to regulate these types of vehicles—Texas law prevents local governments from imposing regulations on autonomous vehicles.
The trial period won't involve the two-seater concept vehicles that Musk showed off back in October of last year. Instead, the fleet will utilize Tesla Model Ys equipped with the brand's latest Full Self-Driving (FSD) 'Unsupervised' software. As you could guess from the name, the new software claims to be able to drive without any human supervision. For context, Forbes was able to trial Full Self-Driving in Sacramento, California, and experienced seven 'failures' within its 80-minute test drive that required them to retake control.
We should note that Tesla is far from the first to implement its autonomous taxi service on Austin's city streets. Waymo is one of the most rock-solid programs in service today, with customers able to hail a ride through the Uber app. Volkswagen's ADMT service and Amazon's Zoox fleet have already hit the streets in their respective trial programs, and Hyundai's Motional program is currently in its mapping phase.
We should note that Tesla vehicles still rely solely on cameras to navigate the roads autonomously—a decision that Elon Musk appears to have no interest in altering. Other genuine Level 4 vehicles like Waymos use a combination of cameras, radar, and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) to scan their environments and make appropriate decisions. There are still a number of considerations that could make a case for either solution, and only time will tell which method comes out on top.
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