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Traffic problems, driving mistakes feature in Tesla's

robotaxi -

passenger videos

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Robotaxis entered wrong lane, dropped passengers off in

the

middle of roads among other issues

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Problems show limitations of Tesla's self-driving software

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safety expert

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Driverless vehicle rivals Waymo and Cruise also faced

issues in

their rollouts

By Abhirup Roy, Rachael Levy and Chris Kirkham

June 25 (Reuters) - A first public test of robotaxis by

Tesla in Austin, Texas led to multiple traffic problems and

driving issues, videos from company-selected riders showed over

the first few days.

Chief Executive Elon Musk has tied Tesla's financial future to

self-driving technology, and with Tesla sales down, the stakes

are high. He said Tesla would roll out the service to other U.S.

cities later this year and predicted "millions of Teslas"

operating "fully autonomously" by the second half of next year.

The Tesla fans invited to the trial were strongly supportive and

posted videos of hours of trouble-free driving, but issues drew

questions from federal road safety regulators and auto safety

experts.

Issues included Tesla robotaxis entering the wrong lane,

dropping passengers off in the middle of multiple-lane roads or

at intersections, sudden braking, speeding and driving over a

curb.

In one instance, a robotaxi drove into a lane meant for oncoming

traffic for about 6 seconds. It had pulled into an intersection

in its left-turn lane with its turn blinker on. Then the

steering wheel wobbled momentarily, and instead of turning it

proceeded straight into the lane meant for oncoming traffic,

prompting a honk from a car behind it.

In another incident, the car suddenly braked with no obstruction

apparent in the video. The passenger jerked forward and their

belongings were thrown to the floor. In a third video, taken

from another vehicle, a robotaxi abruptly stopped twice in the

middle of the road while passing police vehicles with flashing

lights.

Tesla is conducting the test with human safety monitors in the

front passenger seat. A fourth video showed the safety monitor

hitting a button to stop the robotaxi when a delivery truck in

front of it started backing up.

"This is awfully early to have a bunch of videos of erratic

and poor driving," said Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon

University computer-engineering professor and

autonomous-technology expert. "I was not expecting as many

videos of problematic driving on the very first day," he said.

Tesla is testing about 10 to 20 robotaxis, which are standard

Model Ys with advanced software, and has been giving rides since

Sunday afternoon.

Reuters was able to independently verify the locations of at

least 11 videos showing issues. Tesla did not respond to a

request for comment.

A City of Austin spokesperson said officials are aware of

the Tesla issues documented on social media and that "when a

potential legal or safety concern is brought to our attention,

we promptly share it with the company." The spokesperson added

that the police department is "actively collaborating with

Tesla" to ensure officers can safely interact with the

robotaxis.

'CAUGHT ON CAMERA'

The incidents caught on camera did not involve accidents,

and one expert said some reflected a decision to focus on

safety.

"So far so good. It handled the situations very well and likely

better than even good drivers," Alain Kornhauser, Princeton

University professor of operations research and financial

engineering, said by email. He added that it would be more

dangerous to drive at less than the speed of prevailing traffic,

for instance.

Tesla's experiment is unusually public. Other companies

faced similar issues: Alphabet's Waymo and General

Motors' Cruise had their own share of traffic mishaps

after showing up on Austin streets. City officials logged dozens

of instances over the past two years where residents and

authorities reported that robotaxis blocked traffic by stopping

in the middle of roads, failed to respond to police directions

and could not deal with emergency vehicles and road closures.

A serious accident involving a pedestrian in 2023 led Cruise to

shut down last year. Waymo is the only robotaxi service in the

U.S. to ferry paying customers without a human backup driver or

in-car safety monitor. It started offering rides to the general

public through Uber ( UBER ) in Austin earlier this year.

Musk for years has failed to deliver on promises that

self-driving Teslas are just around the corner. Tesla rolled out

the service for a flat fee of $4.20 to a limited number of

handpicked riders. The service is not available to the broader

public and the robotaxis operate in a limited area, and avoid

difficult intersections and bad weather.

Riders were rarely bothered much by driving issues. Farzad

Mesbahi, a former Tesla program manager, and his co-passenger

hit the "drop off early" option during a ride. The vehicle

stopped in an intersection with a stoplight, his video showed.

They exit quickly and walk to the sidewalk. "The car should have

known to not stop there," Mesbahi is heard saying after the

ride. "Opportunities for improvement," the co-passenger says.

That is an example "most companies would not be comfortable

with," said Kara Kockelman, a professor of transportation

engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, adding that

she was surprised by the traffic mistakes.

"Dropping off people in the middle of a six-lane road or

edge of a busy intersection when the traffic is going in the

opposite direction is pretty dangerous. They definitely did not

want to do this or be caught on camera," she said.