Tesla robotaxis have been spotted on Austin streets without safety monitors. Elon Musk commented on X that 'testing is underway with no occupants in the car.' S
Tesla robotaxis have been spotted on Austin streets without safety monitors. Elon Musk commented on X that "testing is underway with no occupants in the car." Safety experts are questioning whether Tesla's autonomous vehicle technology is ready for this next step.
“I think it's a big safety concern to not have a safety driver on board those vehicles,” said Dr. Steven Shladover, lead research engineer specializing in autonomous vehicles at the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Berkeley. Video on X that was taken on December 14 shows a driverless Tesla robotaxi without a human monitor. It is the first time the cars have been empty while driving on Austin streets. “The technology is not robust enough to be able to deal with all of the situations that it will encounter when driving around an urban area,” said Shladover. The research engineer says Tesla's cameras should be augmented with LiDAR and radar sensors, high-precision mapping, and rigorous testing. Shladover says before removing human safety monitors, Tesla should be more transparent about the role it has played during testing. “There really needs to be publicly transparent data about how often those safety monitors have had to intervene in order to solve problems. Unless that information is made available to the public, I do not think the public can trust this,” said Shladover.Tesla's reliance on cameras is raising questions about how safe robotaxis are in comparison to competitors, such as Waymo, which takes a multi-modal approach that provides overlapping views and redundancy. “They've kept the cost of their vehicles quite low by relying only on cameras. Waymo and Apollo Go, and Zoox are using LiDAR as well as radar to help support the vehicles,” said Dr. Kara Kockelman, a professor of transportation engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. LiDAR provides precise 3D mapping and radar measures speed and direction in challenging weather conditions such as rain and fog. Tesla CEO Elon Musk says robotaxis only use cameras because they mimic human vision and are sufficient for self-driving cars. Musk says the vision-only approach is simpler, cheaper, and more scalable than multi-sensor approaches. “Do you think this is premature, or do you think it's time that they moved on to this next step?” asked CBS Austin Reporter Bettie Cross. “I think they've been promising their shareholders this kind of demonstration, and they're very cognizant of perception and trying to bring reality up to that expectation,” said Kockelman. According to Electrek, Tesla has reported seven crashes involving its robotaxis in Austin despite low mileage and in-car safety monitors. Tesla has redacted details of the crashes, preventing the public from knowing what happened and who was responsible. “Transparency is probably key for anyone in this space,” said Kockelman. “I think Tesla should stop redacting the details of those crashes and sharing honestly just like Waymo has been doing.”“It is really hard to beat a Waymo. They are about 85% safer on the same roads in San Francisco, LA, and Arizona as a human driver, a typical U.S. driver,” said Kockelman. “My guess is that Tesla will reduce the crash rate by about 50%.”Austin police are searching for two women suspected of stealing a Rolex watch and iPhone from a man in downtown Austin and transferring thousands of dollars froErika Kirk, the widow of political activist Charlie Kirk, shared that she and Candace Owens will be meeting for a private, in-person discussion.Austin and Travis County officials urged residents to prepare now for potential severe winter weather."There will be outages this winter. It is inevitable," AusLeander Independent School District is set to vote on a school consolidation plan this Wednesday, sparking concern among parents and students at potentially impA deadly crash involving a motorcycle and an SUV has led to the closure of both northbound and southbound lanes of South Bagdad Road at Still Meadow in Leander
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Musk says Tesla is now testing its robotaxi without safety monitorsBusiness Insider tells the global tech, finance, stock market, media, economy, lifestyle, real estate, AI and innovative stories you want to know.
Read more »
Elon Musk confirms Tesla’s testing Robotaxis without human safety drivers in TexasTesla is now testing its robotaxi fleet in Austin without human safety monitors inside the vehicles, Elon Musk said.
Read more »
Tesla shares jump nearly 5% after Elon Musk confirms driverless robotaxi testingToday's Business Headlines: 12/12/25
Read more »
Tesla robotaxis spotted on public roads without safety monitorsTesla’s robotaxis were spotted operating autonomously without safety monitors on public roads in Austin.
Read more »
Tesla Is Testing Robotaxis Without Safety Drivers — or RidersElon Musk confirmed that Tesla is testing its robotaxis without any safety monitors.
Read more »
The $600B dollar man: Musk’s net worth soars on Tesla stock rally, SpaceX valuationForbes data shows the world's richest man is the first ever to have a net worth north of $500 billion.
Read more »