Tesla’s Robotaxis appeared to violate local traffic laws by exceeding the speed limit and swerving into the wrong lane – even as Elon Musk touted a “successful” launch of his long-delayed self-driving vehicles and shares popped as much as 11% Monday.
In one video posted by investor Rob Maurer, a Robotaxi appeared to struggle navigating a left-turn-only lane, briefly crossing over a double yellow line before returning to the proper lane. A human motorist honked at the Robotaxi during the glitch.
Meanwhile, Tesla investor and superfan Sawyer Merritt posted a video from his Robotaxi ride in which the driverless car accelerated past 30 mph speed limit during Sunday’s rollout in Austin, Texas.
YouTuber Herbert Ong described a similar experience in his video, according to Bloomberg.
“It’s going at 39 right now, which is perfect, right, because I don’t want to drive at 35, and it’s driving at the same flow of traffic,” Ong said in the video. “If everyone else is driving at this speed, you want to be at the same speed.”
Despite the apparent hiccups, Tesla shares surged after a handpicked group of influencers who participated in the trial run uploaded positive reviews on X and other social media platforms.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, a Tesla bull, raved about his experience after taking two approximately 15-minute rides in the state capital.
“Going into it, we expected to be impressed but walking away from it, all there is to say is that this is the future,” Ives said in a note to clients.
“The ride itself was completely smooth, and it was indistinguishable that the car was driverless as there was never a moment in the vehicle where we felt as if it did something irrational.”
Ives maintained his “outperform” rating for Tesla’s stock and a $500 price target.
The electric car maker began offering driverless rides by invitation only on Sunday, with riders charged a $4.20 flat fee — a cheeky nod to marijuana use. About 10 driverless Tesla Model Y SUVs were reportedly on the road, with company “safety monitors” on board in the front seat to oversee the trips.
Bearded Tesla Guy, a social media influencer, compared the experience to “basically Uber.”
Farzad Mesbahi, a former Tesla employee-turned influencer, said his rides were “very smooth and comfortable.”
“Now Tesla needs to scale this service safely,” Mesbahi said on X. “As long as the system performance holds, they should be able to cover the US with Robotaxis virtually overnight.”
Robotaxi is set to directly compete with Google-owned Waymo and Amazon-backed Zoox in the autonomous vehicle market.
Tesla told US regulators that all of its answers to questions on the safety of its robotaxi deployment in Texas are confidential business information and should not be made public, according to a letter released Monday.
On Friday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it was reviewing answers given in response to the agency’s questions about the safety of its self-driving robotaxi in poor weather among other issues.
The agency said Monday that federal law “restricts NHTSA’s ability to publicly release what the companies label as confidential.” The agency added that “following an assessment of these responses and other relevant information, NHTSA will take any necessary actions to protect road safety.”
On Sunday, Musk shared “super congratulations to the @Tesla_AI software & chip design teams on a successful @Robotaxi launch!!”
“Culmination of a decade of hard work. Both the AI chip and software teams were built from scratch within Tesla,” Musk wrote on X.
Invitations circulated by Tesla said the initial Robotaxi service would be available from 6:00 AM to 12:00 AM local time and limited to a geofenced area, meaning anything outside the pre-set boundaries would be off-limits.
Tesla also said Robotaxi service would be limited or unavailable in the event of bad weather.
Musk has long touted the potential of Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” technology, though federal regulators and other critics have repeatedly raised safety concerns.
He has suggested that autonomous driving technology can add $5 trillion to $10 trillion to Tesla’s market capitalization by transforming its vehicles into an instant productive fleet.
The billionaire had said the Robotaxi rollout was limited because Tesla was “being super paranoid about safety.”
The debut occurred at a critical time for Tesla, whose shares have been under pressure since Musk embarked on his controversial work with President Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk and Trump had a very public falling-out earlier this month, though the two have since appeared to mend fences.
With Post wires
