Recently, Tesla showed how «for the first time in the world» a car delivered itself from the factory to the owner. But it wouldn’t be Tesla if everything went smoothly.
In a promotional video shared by the automaker, a Model Y drives out of Tesla’s gigafactory in Austin, Texas, USA. Without a single person inside, the shiny electric car drives on its own through the highways and streets of the city until it reaches the home of its new owner. Everything seems to have gone well — but it didn’t.
Like the brand’s new robotaxis, the autopilot of the regular model does not respect the rules, and in particular the nuances of parking. It decided to park near a deliberately bright red curb with an inscription that reads: «No parking. Fire lane». Theoretically, it is possible that Tesla somehow received a special permit to park there, but it looks more like a miscalculation by the autopilot and the company’s PR people.
«As usual, in his latest PR stunt, Elon Musk puts the show before public safety. The first autonomous delivery of a Tesla from the factory to a customer ended with the FSD illegally parking in a fire lane! You can clearly see the warnings against parking in the fire lane marked on the curb. Is the fine for blocking the fire lane included in the purchase price of a new Tesla car?», — writes on X Dan O’Dowd, director and founder of the Dawn Project watchdog group.
Tesla autonomous driving came to public attention again after the launching a robocall service in Austin earlier this month. As expected, serious problems began as soon as a couple dozen robot taxis hit the city. There are many videos of autonomous taxis making mistakes, such as accidental sudden braking, a collision that was narrowly avoided, or dropping passengers off in the middle of a busy intersection.
And Elon Musk’s statement about «the first fully autonomous car without people in the car or remote control on public roads» is not true. The actual leader in the robot taxi industry, Waymo, has been testing its fully autonomous cars on the roads of Phoenix, Arizona, since 2024 — but currently offers such rides only to its employees.
Source: Futurism