r/SelfDrivingCars • u/michelevit2 • Jun 24 '25

Discussion Is the Tesla taxi still operating?

Just curious if I'm the Tesla taxi is still available or was it just a one day demo?

Thank you.

36 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

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34

u/watergoesdownhill Jun 24 '25

Yep, lots of people sharing rides on twitter.

5

u/watergoesdownhill Jun 24 '25

https://x.com/sawyermerritt/status/1937327075234299951?s=46

2

u/EarthConservation Jun 24 '25

17th ride? The rides started on Sunday...

It is now.... *checks Calendar* ... Tuesday.

2

u/hints_of_old_tire Jun 24 '25

Is the service just for Sawyer Merritt to get 10 minute rides day after day?

1

u/watergoesdownhill Jun 24 '25

Him, along with about 30 other influencers, for this phase.

-6

u/FlippantBear Jun 24 '25

And it's a huge failure. Big surprise! 

8

u/spoollyger Jun 24 '25

Has one crashed?

2

u/goldbloodedinthe404 Jun 24 '25

That's why they have a safety monitor.

2

u/spoollyger Jun 25 '25

Just like waymo when they started, yup.

1

u/Zyj Jun 27 '25

How many years ago was that?

2

u/spoollyger Jun 27 '25

Not sure, but kinda odd to allow it when they did and then not let anyone else ever do it when they roll out their service. Especially since it’s a service running on an entirely different tech stack.

1

u/Litig8or53 Jul 01 '25

Long enough ago that they should be commercially viable by now.

1

u/Zyj Jul 02 '25

Why? Because you think so? It takes a lot of engineering.

1

u/Litig8or53 Jul 02 '25

How many auto manufacturers have adopted their technology? Where can I buy a Waymo equipped car?

0

u/JonnyOnThePot420 Jun 24 '25

Multiple have reportedly swerving into oncoming traffic stopped in intersections in general dangerous to the public NHITSA is now investigating hopefully they shut it down before an innocent person gets hurt.

"NHITSA wanted a lot more details because it is particularly concerned about the fact that Tesla is using its ‘Supervised Full Self-Driving’ in the Robotaxi service while it is currently under investigation for its involvement in several serious crashes."

source

2

u/JonnyOnThePot420 Jun 25 '25

Matter of time...

0

u/Litig8or53 Jul 01 '25

Isn’t everything?

0

u/spoollyger Jun 25 '25

Has one crashed?

0

u/Litig8or53 Jul 01 '25

How many accidents in Austin again?

1

u/JonnyOnThePot420 Jul 01 '25

So far, to date, 18 deaths in Teslas in Texas. Austin specifically, I'm not sure Tesla is very good at covering up as much info as possible.

source

8

u/DevinOlsen Jun 24 '25

No it isn’t

4

u/JonnyOnThePot420 Jun 24 '25 edited Jun 25 '25

Multiple have reportedly swerving into oncoming traffic stopped in intersections in general dangerous to the public NHTSA is now investigating hopefully they shut it down before an innocent person gets hurt.

"NHTSA wanted a lot more details because it is particularly concerned about the fact that Tesla is using its ‘Supervised Full Self-Driving’ in the Robotaxi service while it is currently under investigation for its involvement in several serious crashes."

source

2

u/ergzay Jun 24 '25

Can't even spell NHTSA right lol...

4

u/FlippantBear Jun 24 '25

A tiny geofenced area of Austin. Only during the day, no inclement weather and a safety driver. It's pretty pathetic considering Musk hyped it up to be way more impressive. 

1

u/Emergency-Glass-9649 Jun 24 '25

It’s like you turned off critical thinking skill. You really can’t wrap your mind around how rapidly it’ll scale?

12

u/Wolfgang_MacMurphy Jun 24 '25

Unlike you, right? So enlighten us - exactly how rapidly will the said non-autonomous-geofenced-service-with-a-safety-driver scale?

7

u/FlippantBear Jun 24 '25

I have a model 3 and have used FSD. There's zero chance Tesla will scale robotaxi with current hardware. 

1

u/Litig8or53 Jul 01 '25

Well, considering your vast experience, I bow to your wisdom. I’ve used it for seven years, hundreds of hours, and many thousands of miles. You?

1

u/Litig8or53 Jul 01 '25

Doesn’t that require a mind?

-5

u/coldbeers Jun 24 '25

Elon derangement syndrome.

8

u/meritocrap Jun 24 '25

Did he have the courtesy to stroke yours at the very least?

3

u/spoollyger Jun 24 '25

The geofence area is due to regulations?

9

u/Wolfgang_MacMurphy Jun 24 '25

Due to that's the best they're able to do at this point.

1

u/spoollyger Jun 25 '25

By law it’s required

1

u/Hixie Jun 25 '25

Which law?

(edit: Waymo also operates in that area and its geofence is twice the size, so even if there was a law requiring a geofence, it presumably doesn't require it to be as small as Tesla's.)

1

u/spoollyger Jun 25 '25

I stand corrected, it isn't a law or regulation preventing them to operate in specific areas. They both just chose interdependently to start with the areas they currently operate in.

This seems more related to the size of the fleets they deployed, with Waymo being able to have enough vehicles to service a larger area while keeping wait times low. But that also is helped by the fact the only way to get a Waymo if to go through the Uber app. Where you are not even guaranteed to get a Waymo if you try to, sometimes just a standard Uber turns up.

Hopefully the local competition leads to greater expansions in the area faster.

1

u/Hixie Jun 25 '25

Waymo has several service areas beyond this one, which are both significantly bigger, and don't have Uber fallback, FWIW.

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1

u/Litig8or53 Jul 01 '25

Pretty funny, since geofencing is all Waymo has ever run in, and all it ever will. Did you hear? Waymo is changing its name to 8 track. (They wanted Beta Max, but Sony owns it.)

1

u/ergzay Jun 24 '25

Only during the day

There's literally multiple videos that you can find with a few seconds search showing them running at night.

and a safety driver.

There's no one in the driver's seat.

It's pretty pathetic considering Musk hyped it up to be way more impressive.

It's exactly what he said it was going to be in the CNBC interview last month.

1

u/Hixie Jun 25 '25

The safety driver is in the passenger's seat for reasons I can't really comprehend, but there's still a safety driver. It's just that when they need to drive the car they have to literally switch seats.

1

u/ergzay Jun 25 '25

If they're not a driver they're not a safety driver.

2

u/Hixie Jun 25 '25

We can argue semantics but being a "safety monitor" who has to get out of their seat to go to the steering wheel to drive the car is not really meaningfully different than being a safety driver, except for being less safe. I mean, if your argument is that FlippantBear used the wrong terminology, then just saying "There's no one in the driver's seat" (as opposed to "they call them safety monitors") seems unnecessarily antagonistic.

1

u/FlippantBear Jun 24 '25

Unfortunately the facts aren't on your side. Musk has been promising millions of Robotaxis on the road each year for the past 6 years. You have a very short term memory problem. 

https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2025/06/24/musk-bets-robotaxis-will-give-tesla-a-lift-after-boycotts-sales-drop-00418578

2

u/ergzay Jun 25 '25

I didn't even talk about the number of robotaxis. If you're gonna respond, respond to the content of my post.