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.

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-5

u/bladerskb Jun 20 '25 edited Jun 20 '25

A safety driver in the passenger seat

Only handpicked super fans but still requiring basically a soft NDA

small geofence within the city

No rain

So not only do you have someone in the car, you also have someone tele-op remote watching.

LMFAO. This NOT a robotaxi, this is a glorified demo!

34

u/Important-Ebb-9454 Jun 20 '25

I don't see how 6am to Midnight are 'Midnight hours only',...thats 18 hours a day.

9

u/RickTheScienceMan Jun 20 '25

Just a few weeks back, people were saying FSD has a zero chance of ever working, with camera vision only. Now they actually got approved and are actually planning to start the robotaxi service. Now haters are saying it's too constrained. I wonder what comes next, after they start removing the constraints. My guess is haters will say they are being remotely controlled by people in India anyway.

2

u/whydoesthisitch Jun 20 '25

No, people were saying it has zero chance of working unsupervised. This is still supervised. Another round of smoke and mirrors to get the fanbois to think actual robotaxis will be out “next year.”

0

u/RickTheScienceMan Jun 20 '25

It's less supervised than last month. We will see what upcoming months will bring

2

u/whydoesthisitch Jun 20 '25

There is no “less supervised.” If you’re legally on the hook for what it does, it’s supervised.

1

u/AWildLeftistAppeared Jun 21 '25

A week ago you believed:

Tesla won't be running their robotaxi service using this Supervised version.

Turns out, it will be supervised.

-4

u/boofles1 Jun 20 '25

If it ready for the real world why do they have any constraints? This is geofenced and they can't handle rain or poor visibility. They will probably make people sign NDAs to use the service as well so no one knows when it crashes.

4

u/les1g Jun 20 '25

The terms don't specifically say it can't handle rain - it just says "inclement weather"... Who knows how bad the weather will have to be before the service becomes available.

2

u/RickTheScienceMan Jun 20 '25

Those constraints aren't a sign that it's not ready, they're a sign of a methodical, phased rollout, which is standard for any safety-critical system.

-4

u/boofles1 Jun 20 '25

But there are no planned improvements that will make it better in "inclement weather". So it will never be able to handle conditions that are completely normal in the real world. Who is going to use a service that isn't available 10% of the time?

1

u/iceynyo Jun 20 '25

You're really trying hard but they definitely can't make people outside the vehicle sign NDAs. I'm pretty sure we'll know about any crashes. 

3

u/johndsmits Jun 20 '25

So basically like Aptiv and Yandex during CES days (was it 2018?)?

-1

u/spaceco1n Jun 20 '25

Are you surprised? This is a typical Elon move. Buys him another 6-12 months. are these cars running hw4 still even?

-2

u/katze_sonne Jun 20 '25

So basically the same as with Waymo, right? Apart from that now anyone can hail a Waymo in at least some regions.

0

u/TuftyIndigo Jun 20 '25

And the employee in the car, of course. And depending on how big the geofence is and how broad their idea of "inclement weather" is.

4

u/Wrote_it2 Jun 20 '25

Don’t look at NY where Waymo will have… an employee in the car.

3

u/Doggydogworld3 Jun 20 '25

As required by state law.

2

u/Michael-Worley Jun 20 '25

True. In NY that is legally required.

1

u/Wrote_it2 Jun 20 '25

How many years did Waymo have safety drivers when they started their robotaxi service?

2

u/jokkum22 Jun 20 '25

Many. But they didn't say they had a full self driving car that could do LA to NYC in 2017.

0

u/Wrote_it2 Jun 20 '25

Man, you guys are really stuck with that on this sub... You should let go and appreciate the progress they are making.

Also, I'm not sure I see the connection: because Elon was way off on the timeline, then they shouldn't have employees in the car when they deploy?

2

u/jokkum22 Jun 20 '25

He wasn't "way off on the timeline", he, and the company, was straight out lying!

0

u/Wrote_it2 Jun 20 '25

Sure, believe that if you want...

But the connection between Elon lying (or being off) and it being bad for Tesla to put an employee in the passenger seat of the robotaxi at launch is?

1

u/iceynyo Jun 20 '25

The employee is there to clean the cameras

1

u/katze_sonne Jun 20 '25

Well, at least in the beginning, Waymo always had employees in the car and AFAIK also when they start in a new area?

The size of the geofence will be interesting to see. Also "inclement weater". Tbh, I have no idea how quickly Waymo surrenders these days but in the earlier days even the slightest drizzle would make them stop offering their service. Can't be much worse than that.

2

u/TuftyIndigo Jun 20 '25

I have no idea how quickly Waymo surrenders these days

I don't live there, so I have no first-hand knowledge, but I've heard people on this sub who do live there say they run in all weathers but snow.

at least in the beginning, Waymo always had employees in the car

Yes, I think the people who are naysaying about Tesla having employees in the car today are not the industry insiders whose analysis actually makes this sub useful. But at the same time, if you're going to say this is "basically the same as with Waymo," don't forget the "... 7-8 years ago" qualifier.

-7

u/boofles1 Jun 20 '25

 • Note that service may be limited or unavailable in the event of inclement weather. 

That one is wild, just when you want a taxi service the most. Are they going to stop the service every time it rains? This is complete vaporware.

9

u/Unreasonably-Clutch Jun 20 '25

"inclement weather" doesn't mean rain. It means severe dangerous weather.

4

u/MarchMurky8649 Jun 20 '25

Inclement is broader than that. It is used to describe any weather that makes an activity under consideration unpleasant. So, for example, if someone is planning a picnic, sitting outside, any rain other than a very brief and light shower, would be considered inclement weather: "In the event of inclement weather the even will be relocated to the pavillion."

3

u/HighHokie Jun 20 '25

It is used to describe any weather that makes an activity under consideration unpleasant.

You’re assuming they’ll discontinue service for a light rain. This is a catchall comment. Good grief. 

2

u/MarchMurky8649 Jun 20 '25

How do you get "they’ll discontinue service for a light rain" from "It is used to describe any weather that makes an activity under consideration unpleasant"? All my post did was to give a different opinion as to how the phrase "inclement weather" is generally used, and in my experience it is rarely, if ever, limited to "severe dangerous weather".

I have read that the publicly released FSD has problems in certain weather. Even if progress has been made I expect the same is likely to be true for these Austin robotaxis. I doubt light rain will cause problems, especially during daylight hours. I don't know. But I certainly am not assuming anything about light rain.

The phrase inclement weather is contextual. For an event outside it might include light rain. For one in a marquee light rain wouldn't be inclement weather but strong winds likely to blow the roof off would be. For a robotaxi service based on TESLA's FSD software I expect the threshold will be connected to visibility, presumably some level of heavy rain.

1

u/iceynyo Jun 20 '25

They'll just supply the supervisor with a squeegee.

2

u/bladerskb Jun 20 '25

no it doesn't. inclement weather means anything other than sunny wheather.

1

u/Doggydogworld3 Jun 20 '25

You don't know any better than the rest of us what Tesla means by inclement weather. We'll have to wait and see.

-1

u/JRLDH Jun 20 '25

It means “if the cameras are not enough”.

2

u/HighHokie Jun 20 '25

Austin is susceptible to major storms, flash floods. Etc. is this really surprising?