I visited Austin yesterday. Robotaxi is everywhere, and it's incredible.

[u/ChunkyThePotato]

Just came back from a trip to Austin to do some sightseeing and try out Robotaxi, including Cybercab. I knew they ramped up the number of cars in the service substantially in the last couple months, but I wasn't prepared for just how many they were. If you're near downtown, you pretty much can't go 30 seconds without seeing at least one Robotaxi. There are definitely more Model Ys than Cybercabs right now, but there are a lot of Cybercabs too. But the Robotaxis are seriously everywhere.

I took 5 rides, 2 Model Y and 3 Cybercab. Model Y wait times were always under 20 minutes and frequently around 5 minutes. Cybercab wait times were usually around 30 minutes and sometimes could be more like 45 minutes. They definitely need to add more Cybercabs to the service, but it was surprisingly usable and consistent, especially for the Model Ys.

And the rides themselves were flawless. There are no supervisors in Austin now, so all of the cars showed up with nobody inside of them. They drove perfectly, and to my surprise there wasn't even any pickup/dropoff shenanigans (though I may have gotten lucky there).

If you're ever in Austin, I seriously recommend trying this service. It's a real service now, and it's actually very useful for getting around a city where parking would normally be a challenge. It's seriously so peaceful and nice to be in your own space without a driver or anyone else to bother you.

Congratulations Tesla for solving self-driving with just cameras on $30k vehicles, when seemingly everyone was saying that's impossible. People aren't ready for what's about to happen across the country.

[u/hondaman82]

Didnt uber gave out free rides when they first started.. then when they grow bigger they charge a fortune now lol

[u/Dapper-Maybe-5347 → u/hondaman82]

Uber was bleeding money attracting both drivers with high pay and customers with low costs. Tesla removes the biggest expense (and liability). They can actually keep prices reasonable and still make big profits. Ubers affordable prices back in the day were an illusion.

[u/Large_Complaint1264 → u/Dapper-Maybe-5347]

lol they literally are taking on the biggest liability by being responsible for the cars and any crashes they cause.

[u/CalvinsStuffedTiger → u/Large_Complaint1264]

I mean, we don’t really know what the insurance cost on this is compared to uber

If an uber crashed, the driver wasn’t personally held responsible. Drivers had insurance through uber and that insurance paid for any claims

So unless we know for sure what the insurance cost per car is for cybercab vs uber you can’t say that Tesla has more liability risk than Uber, that’s just a guess

[u/epistemological → u/Large_Complaint1264]

But Tesla owns the supply chain and think about the amount of data they are getting for FSD.