6 ms·

Tesla unsupervised Robotaxis are nowhere to be found

69 points by TheAlchemist 9mo ago

mullingitover 9mo ago
I don't think actual unsupervised robotaxis exist, given the reports that they're just having the supervisor follow in a chase car[1]. [1] https://futurism.com/advanced-transport/car-following-tesla-robotaxi https://futurism.com/advanced-transport/car-following-tesla-...
- SilverElfin 9mo ago
  Thank you - that’s what I was wondering. I noticed that Elon and others who were talking about how Robotaxis have improved, were saying something like ‘there is no safety driver’. They didn’t just say flat out that it is autonomous. I wonder if all that’s happened, is that they have a remote operator. I simply can’t believe the claims that FSD is anywhere near what Waymo can do.
  - iknowstuff 9mo ago
    You can test drive it and see for yourself. No need to believe anything. But of course whatever safety threshold they have, they haven’t met it yet if they’re still supervising.
- 1970-01-01 9mo ago
  It's possible that they tried it and pulled the plug due to an unforeseen issue. In other words, it doesn't exist, but it did for a few hours, and will return. There's no way Elon would admit this publicly.
bayarearefugee 9mo ago
This should not be surprising to anyone who pays any attention to Elon Musk's ̶l̶i̶e̶s̶ , er... "predictions"
- bickfordb 9mo ago
  You mean pump and dump fraud
maximinus_thrax 9mo ago
And yet TSLA sits comfortably at ~$450. If someone knowledgeable can explain this to me, I'd be very grateful.
- Lermatroid 9mo ago
  The market is now a casino is how
  - blastro 9mo ago
    bingo
- anonymous908213 9mo ago
  Purchasing TSLA is placing a bet that Elon Musk can generate enough hype such that somebody else will purchase TSLA from you at a higher price later.
  - Panino 9mo ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory
- kibwen 9mo ago
  > explain this to me Humans are the same emotional, irrational apes as we were 100,000 years ago, and the most emotional and irrational thing any of us do, bar none, is delude ourselves by pretending that we aren't.
  - salawat 9mo ago
    I'd argue we're too rational and not irrational enough. If we were sufficiently irrational, the first time Musk-rat lied, everyone woulda bailed. It takes a thoroughly motivated rationality to cling to the hopes of promises that won't ever be kept.
- culi 9mo ago
gerdesj 9mo ago
Maintaining a meme stock is hard, really hard. You do have to hand it to the bloke that he is working hard on this. Back in the day, the term "snake oil salesman" was used and it is as fresh today as it always was.
- netsharc 9mo ago
  We should update that term to "driverless car salesman"...
  - UltraSane 9mo ago
    How about just "Elon Musk"
- technothrasher 9mo ago
  Back in the day, snake oil salesmen weren't seen as frauds (the actual health benefits of snake oil, or lack thereof, is another discussion). It wasn't until after 1916, when Stanley's Snake Oil was discovered to not actually contain any snake oil, that the term came to be associated with fraudulent selling.
AndrewKemendo 9mo ago
There’s no consequences to Musk not delivering and simply making up bullshit. I just saw a LinkedIn post from someone totally unrelated to Musk, or Tesla fawning about how amazing the Tesla Optimus robots are, how they are going to operate in space and how he would prefer one to give him surgery over a doctor. 100s of positive interactions followed Humans seem to need some fiction to believe to get them through their day. So as long as people don’t demand that reality is the driver of their future they will continue to live in whatever fantasy world that makes them the main character
- gerdesj 9mo ago
  I'd go easy on LinkedIn. It sounds like it is getting to you.
  - AndrewKemendo 9mo ago
    Yeah no doubt, It’s soooo bad I was able to stay off it for so long, but I just had to get back on since I changed roles to CTO and its a whole marketing channel I have to use. That place is trash Hopefully I can outsource that soon
- ks2048 9mo ago
  > Humans seem to need some fiction to believe to get them through their day. I think it's more that they want their stock values to stay high (or are simply bots with the same goal).
- yoyohello13 9mo ago
  > Humans seem to need some fiction to believe to get them through their day. Used to be religion. Now it’s billionaire saviors.
  - SilverElfin 9mo ago
    I’ve noticed that has spread from blue collar Americans to everyone now. Like the comment sections on All In podcast’s YouTube videos. Basically worship of billionaires who are in turn MAGA sycophants worshipping Trump. Meanwhile no one cares that the trillions this administration is spending will lead to huge inflation to pay off debt. We will be made poor so billionaires can get a bigger number next to the B.
sergiotapia 9mo ago
oh christ this guy again
WhyNotHugo 9mo ago
Just 9 to 12 months guys!
culi 9mo ago
There are only around 50[0] unique vehicles operating in Austin (not all operating at the same time) and initially only about 3 are operating "with no safety monitor in the car." Based on social media posts it seems they all have chaser vehicles. [0] https://robotaxitracker.com https://robotaxitracker.com
misiti3780 9mo ago
JerryRigEverything randomly started dissing Tesla's FSD system two days before he posts a sponsored video for Ford's self-driving feature.
t1234s 9mo ago
It's probably a good thing they are doing this ultra-conservative rollout of robotaxi.
- UltraSane 9mo ago
  A rate of 0 is not actually a rollout
yalogin 9mo ago
No amount of failed promises, missed deadlines or just plain lies is going to dampen the stock, it’s just the way it is with this. Staying away is the best one can do.
leoh 9mo ago
HN is so fucked at this point. For the last year at least, anything critical of elon gets flagged.
- TheAlchemist 9mo ago
  Yep. I keep posting them though, because the idiocy of it all gets crazier and crazier every week. I even start to wonder if tech people believe Tesla propaganda machine by now.
- hnburnsy 9mo ago
  Funny all I see here are every single critical Elon post from Fred at Electrek.co gaining hundreds of points Ford F-150 Lightning outsold the Cybertruck and was then canceled for poor sales https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46618901 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46618901 [970 points] Tesla’s 4680 battery supply chain collapses as partner writes down deal by 99% https://electrek.co/2025/12/29/tesla-4680-battery-supply-chain-collapses-partner-writes-down-dea/ https://electrek.co/2025/12/29/tesla-4680-battery-supply-cha... [672 points] Tesla influencers tried coast-to-coast self-driving, hit debris before 60 miles https://electrek.co/2025/09/21/tesla-influencers-tried-elon-musk-coast-to-coast-self-driving-crashed-before-60-miles/ https://electrek.co/2025/09/21/tesla-influencers-tried-elon-... [299 points] Tesla reports another Robotaxi crash https://electrek.co/2025/12/15/tesla-reports-another-robotaxi-crash-even-with-supervisor/ https://electrek.co/2025/12/15/tesla-reports-another-robotax... 155 points When Tesla's FSD works well, it gets credit. When it doesn't, you get blamed https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45869916 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45869916 151 points
tstrimple 9mo ago
Flagged again by right wing chuds who have to defend anything Elon, Trump or White Supremacy. This site is a joke.

69 points by TheAlchemist 9mo ago

I don't think actual unsupervised robotaxis exist, given the reports that they're just having the supervisor follow in a chase car[1]. [1] https://futurism.com/advanced-transport/car-following-tesla-robotaxi https://futurism.com/advanced-transport/car-following-tesla-...

SilverElfin 9mo ago
Thank you - that’s what I was wondering. I noticed that Elon and others who were talking about how Robotaxis have improved, were saying something like ‘there is no safety driver’. They didn’t just say flat out that it is autonomous. I wonder if all that’s happened, is that they have a remote operator. I simply can’t believe the claims that FSD is anywhere near what Waymo can do.
- iknowstuff 9mo ago
  You can test drive it and see for yourself. No need to believe anything. But of course whatever safety threshold they have, they haven’t met it yet if they’re still supervising.
1970-01-01 9mo ago
It's possible that they tried it and pulled the plug due to an unforeseen issue. In other words, it doesn't exist, but it did for a few hours, and will return. There's no way Elon would admit this publicly.

bayarearefugee 9mo ago

This should not be surprising to anyone who pays any attention to Elon Musk's ̶l̶i̶e̶s̶ , er... "predictions"

bickfordb 9mo ago
You mean pump and dump fraud

maximinus_thrax 9mo ago

And yet TSLA sits comfortably at ~$450. If someone knowledgeable can explain this to me, I'd be very grateful.

Lermatroid 9mo ago
The market is now a casino is how
- blastro 9mo ago
  bingo
anonymous908213 9mo ago
Purchasing TSLA is placing a bet that Elon Musk can generate enough hype such that somebody else will purchase TSLA from you at a higher price later.
- Panino 9mo ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory
kibwen 9mo ago
> explain this to me Humans are the same emotional, irrational apes as we were 100,000 years ago, and the most emotional and irrational thing any of us do, bar none, is delude ourselves by pretending that we aren't.
- salawat 9mo ago
  I'd argue we're too rational and not irrational enough. If we were sufficiently irrational, the first time Musk-rat lied, everyone woulda bailed. It takes a thoroughly motivated rationality to cling to the hopes of promises that won't ever be kept.
culi 9mo ago

gerdesj 9mo ago

Maintaining a meme stock is hard, really hard. You do have to hand it to the bloke that he is working hard on this. Back in the day, the term "snake oil salesman" was used and it is as fresh today as it always was.

netsharc 9mo ago
We should update that term to "driverless car salesman"...
- UltraSane 9mo ago
  How about just "Elon Musk"
technothrasher 9mo ago
Back in the day, snake oil salesmen weren't seen as frauds (the actual health benefits of snake oil, or lack thereof, is another discussion). It wasn't until after 1916, when Stanley's Snake Oil was discovered to not actually contain any snake oil, that the term came to be associated with fraudulent selling.

AndrewKemendo 9mo ago

There’s no consequences to Musk not delivering and simply making up bullshit. I just saw a LinkedIn post from someone totally unrelated to Musk, or Tesla fawning about how amazing the Tesla Optimus robots are, how they are going to operate in space and how he would prefer one to give him surgery over a doctor. 100s of positive interactions followed Humans seem to need some fiction to believe to get them through their day. So as long as people don’t demand that reality is the driver of their future they will continue to live in whatever fantasy world that makes them the main character

gerdesj 9mo ago
I'd go easy on LinkedIn. It sounds like it is getting to you.
- AndrewKemendo 9mo ago
  Yeah no doubt, It’s soooo bad I was able to stay off it for so long, but I just had to get back on since I changed roles to CTO and its a whole marketing channel I have to use. That place is trash Hopefully I can outsource that soon
ks2048 9mo ago
> Humans seem to need some fiction to believe to get them through their day. I think it's more that they want their stock values to stay high (or are simply bots with the same goal).
yoyohello13 9mo ago
> Humans seem to need some fiction to believe to get them through their day. Used to be religion. Now it’s billionaire saviors.
- SilverElfin 9mo ago
  I’ve noticed that has spread from blue collar Americans to everyone now. Like the comment sections on All In podcast’s YouTube videos. Basically worship of billionaires who are in turn MAGA sycophants worshipping Trump. Meanwhile no one cares that the trillions this administration is spending will lead to huge inflation to pay off debt. We will be made poor so billionaires can get a bigger number next to the B.

sergiotapia 9mo ago

oh christ this guy again

WhyNotHugo 9mo ago

Just 9 to 12 months guys!

culi 9mo ago

There are only around 50[0] unique vehicles operating in Austin (not all operating at the same time) and initially only about 3 are operating "with no safety monitor in the car." Based on social media posts it seems they all have chaser vehicles. [0] https://robotaxitracker.com https://robotaxitracker.com

misiti3780 9mo ago

JerryRigEverything randomly started dissing Tesla's FSD system two days before he posts a sponsored video for Ford's self-driving feature.

t1234s 9mo ago

It's probably a good thing they are doing this ultra-conservative rollout of robotaxi.

UltraSane 9mo ago
A rate of 0 is not actually a rollout

yalogin 9mo ago

No amount of failed promises, missed deadlines or just plain lies is going to dampen the stock, it’s just the way it is with this. Staying away is the best one can do.

leoh 9mo ago

HN is so fucked at this point. For the last year at least, anything critical of elon gets flagged.

TheAlchemist 9mo ago
Yep. I keep posting them though, because the idiocy of it all gets crazier and crazier every week. I even start to wonder if tech people believe Tesla propaganda machine by now.
hnburnsy 9mo ago
Funny all I see here are every single critical Elon post from Fred at Electrek.co gaining hundreds of points Ford F-150 Lightning outsold the Cybertruck and was then canceled for poor sales https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46618901 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46618901 [970 points] Tesla’s 4680 battery supply chain collapses as partner writes down deal by 99% https://electrek.co/2025/12/29/tesla-4680-battery-supply-chain-collapses-partner-writes-down-dea/ https://electrek.co/2025/12/29/tesla-4680-battery-supply-cha... [672 points] Tesla influencers tried coast-to-coast self-driving, hit debris before 60 miles https://electrek.co/2025/09/21/tesla-influencers-tried-elon-musk-coast-to-coast-self-driving-crashed-before-60-miles/ https://electrek.co/2025/09/21/tesla-influencers-tried-elon-... [299 points] Tesla reports another Robotaxi crash https://electrek.co/2025/12/15/tesla-reports-another-robotaxi-crash-even-with-supervisor/ https://electrek.co/2025/12/15/tesla-reports-another-robotax... 155 points When Tesla's FSD works well, it gets credit. When it doesn't, you get blamed https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45869916 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45869916 151 points

tstrimple 9mo ago

Flagged again by right wing chuds who have to defend anything Elon, Trump or White Supremacy. This site is a joke.