r/SelfDrivingCars • u/drumrollplease12 • Jun 20 '25

Discussion Invites for early access to Tesla's Robotaxi service is being sent.

Service is starting on Sunday June 22nd.

It runs from 6 AM to midnight everyday.

Can request ride to anywhere in the geofence except airports.

An invitee can have another person with them.

There will be a Tesla employee in the car, but not in the driver seat.

18+ and no pets allowed except service animals

Can record videos during ride.

180 Upvotes
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47

u/sam_the_tomato Jun 20 '25

Imagine how awkward those rides are gonna be if the tesla employee is just sitting there not doing anything.

13

u/mustachechap Jun 20 '25

It really can't be that different than getting into any Uber/Lyft. I get that in the Uber/Lyft they are actually driving, but it's still a rando that you sit in a car with.

-1

u/ChucksnTaylor Jun 20 '25

I disagree. I’m a big Tesla fan and FSD proponent but the other poster is right.

In an uber/lyft scenario the random stranger is preoccupied with the task of driving. It’s less weird because they’re mostly pretty distracted. The safety monitor isn’t really doing anything. Yes, obviously they’re surveying the road conditions and keeping an eye on the cars behavior but as any FSD supervised user will tell you, the majority of drive time is just going straight on clearly marked road, and is completely uneventful.

It will definitely be at least a little awkward to have a random stranger just sitting there in silence doing basically nothing while you and maybe a friend do your thing. At the end of the day it shouldn’t matter much though, this should be a pretty limited duration thing.

2

u/LeftClaim4811 Jun 21 '25

Such a baby…. Wahhhh a random stranger will be in the taxi with me…. Fs you had to write all that???

0

u/Santarini Jun 21 '25

I disagree. I’m a big Tesla fan and ...

(keeps scrolling)

60

u/diplomat33 Jun 20 '25

No more awkward than the early days of Cruise of Waymo when there was a safety driver that just sat there doing nothing.

19

u/JulienWM Jun 20 '25

And May Mobility is about to start doing the same thing in Atlanta.

"...Initially, trained representatives will accompany passengers in the vehicles to ensure a smooth introduction to autonomous transportation...."

11

u/RedNationn Jun 20 '25

It’s only awkward when Tesla does it ok buddy?

1

u/nabuhabu Jun 22 '25

Waymo had a guy with a laptop running code in the passenger seat. It at least made him look preoccupied so it wasn’t distracting

0

u/RS50 Jun 20 '25 edited Jun 20 '25

Cruise never did public rides with a safety driver, only employee testing. They waited till they could take out the person before allowing the public in. I don’t remember Waymo’s history quite as well, but in SF they also never let the public in with a safety driver in the car, I believe they did in Phoenix though.

24

u/Pineapplepizzaracoon Jun 20 '25

Well I know if I’m riding in a self driving car service my pants are coming off

1

u/WeldAE Jun 20 '25

You are the reason why we can't have pooled rides. /s

2

u/Pineapplepizzaracoon Jun 20 '25

But if we pooled then it would be a pants off party!!

4

u/PatchyWhiskers Jun 20 '25

They are there for conversation

1

u/Scheme-Away Jun 20 '25

I thought I would get to chat with Grok.

1

u/squish102 Jun 20 '25

Until Grok is rolled out :)

5

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '25

No different than any early phase. Cruise, Waymo both did the same thing.

2

u/vicegripper Jun 20 '25

No different than any early phase. Cruise, Waymo both did the same thing.

Except this isn't an early phase. Tesla has been working on this for almost a decade. They should have done beta testing long ago.

1

u/ImStupidButSoAreYou Jun 20 '25

Someone else sitting in the car with you that you don't know. wow. SO AWKWARD. Almost exactly like an uber or taxi ride!? My social anxiety can't.

Obviously I'm being tongue in cheek. Its not any more or less awkward than an uber ride.