Early report on Musk’s Austin robotaxi efforts.
TL;DR: pretty damn weak.
Tesla’s robotaxi peppered with driving mistakes in Texas tests
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/teslas-robotaxi-peppered-with-driving-mistakes-texas-tests-2025-06-25/
We have a '24 Tesla Y. Came with 90 days of FSD, it was just ok - once we knew the limitations.
We just turned it on for a month this month for a big drive from WI - NY and back. FSD has really improved in last year.
I was impressed - did very well in all situations EXCEPT where one has to pick a specific lane of EZ-PASS vs cash (how could it know), and it did not always detect speed construction zones. Otherwise did great in cities, highways and parks itself.
Will only subscribe for long trips, however, don’t need it for jaunts around town.
It does a better job of driving than me - it never takes a break or loses concentration.
There is a clip on the Tesla twitter page showing the delivery of a car from the factory to a location 30 minutes away all on autonomous driving. Scary if you ask me. Not interested in this technology at all for myself.
I saw just watching a review for a Kia or Hyundai that had the exact same complaint. So it isn’t a Tesla specific issue. I guess you can get around it if you have a system like GM which monitors the drivers face, but other than that it is up to the driver to train themselves on the right amount of wheel tug.
I’ve read that subaru also has some camera system to confirm driver is driving, hands on the wheel, etc.
I just picked up a 2022 Honda passport with lane departure warning, lane keeping assist, blind spot monitor, adaptive cruise and emergency braking.
The lane keeping assist will navigate a broad turning road, think country highway, with no intervention, however it seems like there is a timing check in the system ~ maybe 15 seconds? Visual warning for the driver to enter steering input, otherwise it deactivates - meaning cruise is off, hence slows down.
I can only imagine the debates engineering has internally, then with legal and regulatory, nhtsa, for example.
Waymo is not making friends here. Thank goodness this happened at 3 AM instead of 3 PM. There may have been a riot.
We have this on our Mazda cx90 and it’s awful. It often confuses old road lines that have been painted or tarred over. So it will try to jerk you off the road to follow the “old” road lines. I’ve had it do similar in snowy conditions on the highway.
The last thing I want as a safety feature is one that randomly tries to swerve you off the road when you’re driving a snowy mountain pass.
X2. Loaners, rentals, or any other car. Lane assist nonsense is turned off.
Vehicles with human drivers break down, malfunction and stall holding up traffic all the time. Not sure why we would expect an autonomous cars not to occasionally do it.
Human driven vehicles break down due to the loose screw behind the steering wheel. 
On a serious note, if autonomous vehicles are already loaded up with all sorts of sensors and monitors, I wonder if they also have more to proactively prevent breakdowns.
It’s here.
One of the business paper writers took a spin. My question is, what happens if one were to brake check it? Or drive too close to it? Or be parked half-assed, partially in the lane - does it swing around that car? And what if you don’t like the route it’s taking? This is my peeve with Uber/Lyft drivers who come in from out of town and the rare times I take an Uber here, I tell them the back ways to go.
As we made our way down the road, I started to peel my eyes from the road as Lewis talked about the features of the car and how the system worked. The screens showed the route along with other cars on the road and other obstacles. As we made our way to the Midtown Turnip Truck, deep in conversation (mostly me asking about all the things that could go wrong) I found myself forgetting there wasn’t a person behind the wheel.
The car moved around traffic cones and stopped for people with ease. It moved slower than most of the cars on the street, and there were no instances where it had to slam on the brakes. It gave a car length of distance between itself and the car in front of it.
Exiting the car at the end of the ride, I felt less apprehensive than I did going in. Will I be downloading the app at this time? No. I think I’ll be sticking with a human driver for the foreseeable future (I also know many people who drive Uber and Lyft as a source of income and would prefer my money to go to a human).