One of Tesla’s entirely autonomous Robotaxis grazed a car parked after having finished a recently trip to Austin, Texas. In a video recorded by Youtuber Dirtytesla, a self-commissioning model is seen to be transformed and accelerate into Toyota, establishing light contact with its tire. As we can see in the video, the model has already deposited its passenger there, but had difficulty sailing outside the Black alley thereafter. Tesla’s Robotaxi service was launched in Austin just two weeks ago with a small fleet.
According to Dirtytesla, there were no serious injuries or damage and the Robotaxi security instructor finally exchanged the driver’s seat and left. Although the sidewipe was a minor, we do not know what caused the Tesla driving in the car parked instead of leaving normally after finishing the ride.
Apart from this incident involving another car, other guests shared their unexpected experiences with the Robotaxi service in Tesla. Until now, we have seen the Robotaxi service stop suddenly for emergency lights that are not on the road and lead briefly on the wrong side of a double yellow line. It is important to note that Tesla’s autonomous software is mainly based on cameras and artificial intelligence. This is different from some of its competitors, such as Waymo, which uses a combination of cameras, Lidar and radar for its Robotaxi service. However, Waymo is not without its own incidents, one of which led to a voluntary reminder of its fleet in Phoenix, Arizona, following a collision with a telephone post last year. More recently, Waymo has published another recall for its robotaxis, which would have been inclined to hit road barriers which are more difficult to see.
