Abstract:
According to electrek, an Austin passenger recently posted that he experienced a "10-minute journey turning into 70 minutes" in a Tesla Cybercab driverless taxi. The vehicle took him across most of Austin in order to avoid the highway. The passenger posted a description in the r/Austin section of the Reddit forum,
He took a taxi from the 99 Ranch Market in the north to the Domain business district, which normally takes only 10 minutes on the elevated expressway.
As a result, Cybercab "took me around south and across the entire East Austin", and the whole journey took 70 minutes. He also gave the post an exaggerated title: "My Cybercab imprisoned me for an hour."
Of course, this is just a joke. Passengers can end their trip at any time and call another car. The fare is about US$20, which is roughly the same as the market price.
But the crux of this incident is that when placing an order, the Tesla App only displays a price estimate, not a time estimate. Passengers only found out after getting in the car that they had "signed up for a city tour."
The reason for the detour also points to Tesla’s unresolved capability shortcomings. Some car friends analyzed in the post that
Tesla’s unmanned vehicles are currently unable to drive on highways such as MoPac and US-183, and will actively avoid at-grade railway crossings.
The two restrictions overlap, and vehicles can only travel south along surface streets, parallel to the Austin Capital Metro Red Line light rail, until an overpass is found to cross the tracks in East Austin. "It basically runs side by side with the red line the whole way." Passengers also agree with this analysis.
It is understood that the Cybercab without a steering wheel and pedals just started carrying passengers in Austin on September 3, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched an audit of its self-certification process on the same day; just a few days ago, a Tesla driverless car was photographed crashing directly through a set of road pillars.
It should be noted that the detour restriction applies to the entire Tesla self-driving car fleet.
Tesla’s Model Y self-driving cars and Cybercab run the same set of software, which also means that any Austin passenger may be drawn into the same “ring city route”.
In comparison, Waymo in the United States has already provided fully driverless services on highways, while Tesla's purely visual solution is still limited to closed areas on low-speed ground roads.
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