Did Tesla's Robotaxi Launch Backfire?

WIRED

3 days ago

Survey data shared exclusively with WIRED suggests that Tesla's newest autonomous driving technology has freaked out some consumers. Photograph:Would you consider a ride in a self-driving car? After hearing a bit about Tesla's robotaxi launch in Austin, Texas, last month, just under half of US consumers wouldn't even think about it, according to survey data shared exclusively with WIRED.
Thirty-one percent of the survey's respondents said they're not considering riding one right now. Sixty-five percent said they hadn't even heard about Tesla's robotaxi launch, which includes just a handful of cars and is open only to invited users—mostly Tesla fans. The cool reception to the launch could be less than ideal for Tesla, which has staked its future on its robotics technology.
It gets worse for the electric-car maker. According to a survey, which polled 8,000 US consumers and was conducted by the market research group Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report (EVIR), 42 percent of consumers were less interested in a robotaxi ride after reading an excerpt of Wall Street Journal coverage of the Tesla launch. (The excerpt described the service and noted the potential downsides of Tesla's camera-based technology.) Just over half of those surveyed said they were less convinced that Tesla's robotaxis were safe. Over 30 percent said they strongly believed self-driving taxis should be illegal. (Twenty-four percent said they weren't sure.)
Tesla, which publicly disbanded its public relations team in 2021, did not respond to WIRED's request for comment. Tesla CEO Elon Musk will likely be asked by investors about the robotaxi launch, and the public's reactions to it, during Tesla's second-quarter earnings call slated for Wednesday afternoon.
The company's path-breaking approach to electric vehicles, and the tech underpinning their design and manufacture, has long made the automaker, its cars, and its mercurial leader Musk an industry lightning rod. For many years, Musk and company were able to translate that flash and noise into sky-high valuations and acclaim. Tesla is still the world's most valuable carmaker, despite accounting for just 2.5 percent of global vehicles sold last year.
But Musk's foray into politics—including a Nazi-like salute executed during President Donald Trump's inauguration, and a months-long stint as the face of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency—seems to have shifted consumer feelings about Tesla, especially around a former key demographic of affluent liberals. An EVIR survey from earlier this year found that Tesla is now the only EV brand with a negative consumer perception. This spring, Tesla deliveries dropped 13.5 percent.
Self-driving tech, and the artificial intelligence and robotics breakthroughs underlying it, was meant to be part of Tesla's salvation. 'Really, we should be thought of as an AI robotics company,' Musk told investors in April. 'If you value Tesla as just an auto company … fundamentally, that's just the wrong framework. If somebody doesn't believe Tesla is going to solve autonomy, I think they should not be an investor in the company.' He's said that work in those areas could make Tesla 'the most valuable company in the world by far.'
But a long-promised robotaxi service launch in Austin didn't go entirely to script. Musk initially said no one other than the customer would be inside the self-driving Teslas, but the automaker installed human safety operators in the front passenger seat of each car to intervene when the tech fails. The service isn't yet open to the public; only invited users, initially Tesla influencers popular on Musk's X platform, have access to robotaxis. Tech bloopers captured by those riders, including an incident in which a robotaxi briefly crossed a double-yellow line to drive into the oncoming lane of traffic, attracted the notice of federal regulators; a spokesperson for the National Highway Traffic Administration told WIRED last month that the agency is looking into the tech. And the launch itself was small, using just a handful of cars in a limited part of the city. (Tesla expanded the service area in Austin last week; in a brazen, puckish flourish typical of Musk and Tesla, the new map resembles a phallus.)
Still, Musk has said his tech will roll out rapidly and that there will be 'millions of Teslas operating autonomously' in the second half of 2026.
EVIR also polled 4,100 consumers with investment exposure to Tesla and found that 61 percent believe Musk should 'focus on his businesses instead of risking his reputation with government-related activities."
If US consumers can't get onboard with Tesla robotaxis, the fallout might have implications for the entire autonomous vehicle industry. As with any new technology, a safety misstep by one industry player might affect all of them.
The queasy consumer feelings about robotaxis could hardly come at a worse time: After years of over-promising and underdelivering, many Western tech developers are finally getting their self-driving tech on the roads. Alphabet's Waymo is picking up paying passengers in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and Atlanta; Amazon's Zoox says it will launch in Las Vegas this year; Lyft and the tech developer May Mobillity say they'll start picking up passengers in Atlanta this year; Uber and the British company Wayve say they're working to start self-driving service in London at some point after the second half of 2027.
In a written statement, May Mobility COO Kathy Winter called surveys finding low public trust and interest in robotaxis 'simply an artifact of low exposure to a new technology.' 'The superior convenience and safety [autonomous vehicles] provide are game changers for even the most skeptical first-time riders,' she wrote.
Waymo and Zoox didn't respond to WIRED's requests for comment.
China, meanwhile, seems to be racing ahead in self-driving taxis. Baidu's Apollo Go says it has completed 11 million rides—at the time, more than Waymo's 10 million—in cities all over China; rivals WeRide and Pony.ai operate in five and four cities, respectively.