What we saw in Tesla under supervision, launch Robotaxi just for invitation

Tesla In June, the launch of the long-awaited “Robotaxi” requires a lot of qualifications: it was under supervision, open only a few invitations and included somewhere between 10-20 vehicles.

A The stock has jumped up 8% the day after launch, and some participants and observers called it a success. The shares have been largely returned this profit since then.

“I thought it was extremely smooth. Everything we saw,” said the Wedbush analyst Dan Jus. “Not only in terms of security. The maneuverability was impressive. I thought it was really even better than Waymo from the goal. I thought it would be eight out of 10. I think it’s 10 out of our experience.”

Other impressions were less smooth: one vehicle drove on incorrect roads one vehicle stopped in the middle movementone suddenly set up On the street 40 km / h and another vehicle dropped the passenger in the middle intersection.

“What Tesla laid out last Sunday is not a robotica,” said analyst Gordon Johnson from Glj Research in a note published on Thursday. “These are babies -spectacci, which requires constant supervision to prevent it from harming themselves or others.”

Since 2016 CEO Elon Musk It was promising that Tesla vehicles were on a full autonomy.

The Tesla General Plan, a part of Deux, provided for the future if each Tesla owner was able to “add his car to the Tesla’s total fleet by just clicking the Tesla Phone app and make it profit for you while you are at work or on vacation, significantly shifting and sometimes potentially exceeding the monthly lease or rent.”

In October of the same year, he stated that all Tesla vehicles would have the equipment needed for complete self -government.

In 2019, he said that by 2020 Tesla would have 1 million roboticis.

So far, none of these forecasts have come true. And many researchers and competitors challenge Musk that Teslas already have all the equipment needed for complete autonomy.

The electric car manufacturer goes a completely different way from any other major company that works for full driving cars. It does not use radar and leading devices that reflect the environment around the car.

Companies like Alphabet ‘s Waymo and Amazon‘s Zamx Each uses both radars and the leader. Tesla, on the contrary, primarily uses cameras. Musk said he believed that the software could make a difference.

“I think that what is unpleasant and just strange inside the autonomous vehicle industry I think, everyone seems to be on the same page,” said Ed Nidermayer, a journalist who illuminated Tesla for years and wrote a book about the company. “You talk to almost any major expert, and they say: you know what Tesla is doing interesting. It pushes technology forward in a certain relationship. So?

The second key difference is that Tesla has long been promoting what Niedermeyer calls a “general solution” to complete self -government. This means that each Tesla will be able to manage itself under any circumstances anywhere in the world.

This is largely what Musk said in the second general Tesla, “if true self -government is approved by regulators, it will mean that you can call your Tesla with almost anywhere.”

This presents big technical problems.

“If your operating domain is the whole world, how do you get enough miles to find out what you cover everything you will see in all the conditions that exist in the world?” said the Nidermayer.

All others pass the Waymo route – placing vehicles in a small shift as parts of Austin, Texas, Phoenix and San Francisco.

The fact that Tesla decided to expand only roboticis in the Austin section, and not allow them to wander everywhere is one of the reasons that Niedermeyer said the company somehow proves that Waymo is taking a more possible approach.

“It’s funny because Tesla wants Austin to be a show, a performance that shows, ‘Hey, how we do, can we do without drivers, right? “,” he said. “But in fact, what he shows – well, Waymo was right all the time.”

Musk still has fans and believers.

“Tesla is the future,” said Darka Pranta, a resident of Austin, with whom CNBC talked to a local cafe.

Protich said he owned several Tesla vehicles and traveled in similar autonomous cars with Waymo, which he said he liked. He also traveled to a robotica -like car in China and has less confidence.

“They are not so safe,” the Protych said. “They are smaller. But I believe in Teslas, honestly.”

Another fan is Michael Simon from Buddha, Texas.

“I just think it’s weird what Elon does,” he said. “When I saw that the roboticis was active, I liked it, I wanted to ride.”

Neither protich nor Simon went to the original launch models, but both said they were waiting for a chance.

“Elon made a huge investment in Austin, and if I was younger and still worked, I would absolutely put in Tesla resume to try to go to work on them and become part of this exciting technology and the future,” Simon said.