First Day with Robotaxi (Full Drives)

Service Overview

🚕 Q: What type of vehicle does the Tesla Robo Taxi service in Austin use?
A: The service uses Tesla Model Y cars, which are bestselling and blend in with regular traffic.

🚗 Q: How do Tesla Robo Taxis compare to other self-driving cars in terms of visibility?
A: Unlike other self-driving cars with visible LiDARs and cameras, Tesla Robo Taxis draw little attention to themselves in traffic.

Technology and Safety

📡 Q: What technology does Tesla use for its self-driving capabilities?
A: Tesla relies on a camera-based system without LiDAR, using advanced AI and neural networks for perception and decision-making.

🛑 Q: How does the Tesla Robo Taxi handle unexpected situations?
A: The system is designed to err on the side of caution, often coming to a complete stop when faced with uncertain scenarios or potential hazards.

User Experience

📱 Q: How do users interact with the Tesla Robo Taxi service?
A: Users can summon and control the Robo Taxi through a smartphone app, similar to other ride-hailing services.

💺 Q: What is unique about the passenger experience in a Tesla Robo Taxi?
A: Passengers sit in a regular Tesla interior without a driver, experiencing a fully autonomous ride while having access to the car's infotainment system.

Safety and Public Perception

1. 🚗 Robo Taxi uses the Model Y, Earth's bestselling car, making it unnoticeable and less likely to be harassed compared to other self-driving vehicles with visible sensors.
2. 🛑 The service prioritizes safety by yielding to everyone, even in hectic parking lots, potentially leading to awkward interactions but ensuring passenger security.

Technical Performance

1. 🏎️ Robo Taxi excels at handling speed bumps, demonstrating consistency in an area where current public full self-driving versions often struggle.
2. 🚦 The service still makes mistakes with traffic signals, such as stopping at stale yellow lights and misunderstanding red arrows, mirroring issues in current full self-driving systems.

Technology and Development

1. 🧠 Robo Taxi utilizes neural nets, making it safer than ever despite ongoing challenges with traffic signal interpretation.
2. 🔧  The service is a souped-up version of v13 with 3x parameter count, not specifically tailored for Austin, suggesting a broader applicability and scalability potential.

• 00:00 🚗 The creator stress tests a robotaxi in Austin, navigating through challenging conditions with excellent performance and behavior similar to a human-driven car.
  • The creator stress tests a robotaxi in Austin, navigating through challenging conditions like flooded parking lots and sudden rain showers on the first day.
  • The robotaxi handles various driving scenarios, including speed bumps, right turns on red, and interactions with human drivers, with excellent performance and behavior similar to a human-driven car.
  • The robotaxi feels like a souped-up version of the previous version 13, rather than a completely new and tailored experience for Austin.
• 02:36 🚗 The robotaxi's first day of full self-driving showed it prioritizes lane lines and traffic rules, but with some quirks.
  • The robotaxi's full self-driving capabilities seem to prioritize staying within lane lines and following traffic rules, with some quirks, such as potentially underutilizing its front bumper camera.
  • The video creator arrived at the first destination using a robotaxi and noted that the optimal route taken may not have been the only possible route.
• 04:52 🤖 The Robotaxi navigates through busy areas, often going unnoticed as driverless, but has some minor issues with hesitant maneuvers.
  • Most people don't notice that the Robotaxi is driverless, with only about 1 in 20 individuals realizing it's autonomous, largely due to its unassuming appearance as a regular Model Y car.
  • The robotaxi navigates through an area with many Whimos, handling most situations well, except for one uncomfortable maneuver at an intersection where it hesitated and changed its mind.
  • The robo taxi's text above the buttons is likely a hidden autopilot snapshot button that sends data to Tesla, and the safety monitor's finger on the passenger door release is probably on the emergency brake.
• 07:55 🤖 Robotaxi's test drive reveals limitations and glitches, suggesting its full self-driving system is not optimized for autonomous taxis.
  • The robotaxi's behavior, such as navigating through intersections with yellow lights and hesitating at entryways, suggests that the full self-driving system is not tailored specifically for robotaxis, but rather an advancement of existing technology.
  • Robotaxi encounters an issue, automatically calls support, and while waiting, attempts to resolve the issue by backing out and re-approaching, but ends up going the wrong way.
• 09:52 🤖 Tesla's robotaxi shows inconsistent results in navigating various scenarios, struggling with specific traffic rules and occasionally making mistakes despite its neural net system's safer driving capabilities.
  • The robotaxi had inconsistent results navigating a parking lot, failing on its first attempt but succeeding perfectly on its second and third attempts.
  • Tesla's robotaxi shows inconsistent behavior, often performing well but occasionally making mistakes, such as hesitating to move forward despite clear surroundings.
  • The robotaxi's neural net system allows for safer driving but sometimes struggles with understanding specific traffic rules, such as red arrows and lane restrictions, requiring additional data and testing.
• 12:29 🤖 Elon Musk announces upcoming AI model update for RoboTaxi fleet with larger context window and more parameters, aiming to improve safety and performance.
  • Elon Musk mentioned that an updated version of the AI model with a larger context window, potentially 3X or with 4.5 times more parameters, is coming to the RoboTaxi fleet soon, but a release timeline is uncertain.
  • The safety driver is likely still in the car to prevent mistakes, but issues are decreasing with each update, and even leading self-driving cars like Whimo experience problems.
• 14:46 🤖 The user experiences issues with a robotaxi, including difficulty changing destinations and yielding excessively to pedestrians, who often fail to notice the driverless car.
  • The user asked the safety driver if they could change the destination to a nearby restaurant, but were unable to do so through the app.
  • The robotaxi yields excessively to pedestrians, causing a security guard to intervene, and most people fail to notice the driverless car, with only about 1 in 20 people acknowledging its presence.
• 16:27 😂 The robotaxi's safety driver amused the rider with his strict no-questions policy, and the ride was uneventful except for learning that the area is being heavily tested.

WatchUrl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-BzbBje-8I