This is why a human babysitter was needed to launch Tesla’s Robotaxi.

“It’s a demonstration or test using safety drivers. It’s not a (autonomous vehicle) deployment,” says Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina who studies self-driving cars. “Tesla is splattering in the kids’ pool and everyone is asking where they are in the Olympic swimming competition.”

Bloopers and sensors

Tesla is quiet about the details of its technology. And it is difficult to reach clear conclusions about technology from social media posts uploaded by riders. However, some of those posts seem to show fewer rides than smoother rides. In one video, a Robotaki tries to turn left. Appears to cross a double yellow line To the approaching traffic. Another, Robotaki Apparently it cannot detect UPS truck stopping and parking reversingand the front seat safety monitors need to intervene to stop the car.

One YouTuber uploaded a video showing Tesla’s unwise fully autonomous (supervisor) feature and Robotaxi’s “phantom brake,” a phenomenon flagged by hundreds of users. Federal government investigates. Unlike actual autonomous driving technology, fully autonomous driving (supervising) requires users to look at the roads.

According to Tesla’s website, the service will be suspended due to bad weather. One YouTuber Their ride was stopped due to the stormRobotaxi dropped riders into Austin Park as the wind began to whip around them. A few minutes later, according to videoThe same Robotaxi went to pick up the creators and continued on board. However, one poster that contradicts the above I’ve reported it The car works “perfectly” in heavy rain.

Early bloopers aren’t surprising, experts say. With fully autonomous driving (supervising), human drivers need to intervene when necessary, and Robotakshi looks the same now, says Philip Coopman, a Carnegie Mellon University professor who studies autonomous vehicle safety. The slip-ups that Robotaxis did are different from what human drivers do on the road, he says. However, Autonomy’s value addition is assumed to be safe, so it makes sense that the “rough edge” of video and technology will make people tense.

Camera confusion

The launch has resumed public debate on Tesla’s central doctrine of technology. It’s about using only the camera and “making decisions” as it drives. Musk and his company have long argued that artificial intelligence supplemented by data collected by cameras is sufficient to operate safe, unmanned cars. The CEO has promised that it can easily push the updated software so that all cars can become autonomous without any changes (though Tesla It was also silently destroyed (about this claim). Other companies view more expensive sensors, such as radar and Lidar, as important validators and support. (Lidar prices have dropped dramatically. Many Chinese automakers now include sensors All the cars they sell. )

Advances in large-scale language models In the automotive industry, we are confident that the mask approach is the right one. In a podcast interview published this week, Kyle Foggt, former CEO of General Motors AV Unit Cruise Discussed Images of cameras mounted on multiple vehicles and advanced models can be “really accurate.” (vogt I resigned from the cruise After one of the unmanned vehicles collided and dragged a pedestrian in. The company was not transparent with regulators about the incident; Reports discovered later. )

For Cummings, Austin’s report confirmed her belief that cameras alone are not enough to operate the car autonomously. “There are no robotic systems where safety is important, meaning they’ve had success with a single sensor stock. “It’s unclear why Tesla thinks they can do something they’ve never done before.”

One metric that could reveal Tesla’s internal success: how quickly it expands. Musk boldly said in May that Tesla has hundreds of thousands of cars on the road next year, and perhaps up to a million. The company seems motivated. According to RecruitmentTesla is hiring for additional vehicle operators who are paid to drive vehicles around Austin to collect data. But of course, Musk is not a stranger The deadline has not been met.