Tesla has started offering its Robotaxi service in more Texas cities, but that doesn't mean you can expect to snag one and go for an easy ride. A new report shows users experiencing all kinds of trouble, and by that, we mean problems with pretty much every aspect of a taxi ride.You want to be dropped off right at your destination? You want to take the most direct route? You want the taxi to make left turns? You want it to pick you up at all? These are apparently issues Tesla hasn't quite solved yet. Service Still Has Some Bugs Tesla The company's expansion from Austin to Dallas and Houston has come with some Texas-sized problems, Reuters reports, though it seems like at least some could be because it is a victim of its own popularity. A Reuters reporter in Dallas recently had to spend two hours to get what should have been a five-mile ride.Over a half-hour of "no rides available nearby" and high-demand messages, followed by a 19-minute wait for a car to arrive, shows that there is strong demand for the service. Or at least more demand than the service can handle. Tesla hasn't said how many vehicles are on the road in each city at any time. If there are just a handful of cars, that could certainly be a problem unto itself.Aside from the excessive wait, more glaring issues appeared when this first car finally arrived. It took a route that added 13 minutes to what should have been a 22-minute drive, opting to meander through side roads instead of jumping on the highway. And then, instead of dropping off the reporter at City Hall as requested, the drop-off was a 15-minute walk away. The response from Tesla: the area was "restricted." Based on an average walking speed, 15 minutes is about a mile from the destination.According to the report, it wasn't an isolated incident, either. Two other booked rides each left the rider a 15-minute walk from his destination.Reuters claims that one ride left the customer "on the opposite side of a freeway, and suggested he walk under overpasses strewn with trash and smelling of urine." Trouble With Directions, Speeds Tesla On another ride, the Robotaxi couldn't make a left turn. Four times in a row, the car got confused by signage near an intersection and made a series of right turns to double back but still missed the left upon its return. It took a human monitor's input to finally make the turn.In Austin, where the service has been running for several months, Tesla has reported 15 crashes to federal officials. The automaker redacts information about the crashes, hiding details about severity, injuries, and who was at fault. None of its autonomous vehicle competitors request the information be redacted.Austin Police Lieutenant William White oversees autonomous-vehicle safety in Austin. He told Reuters that there had been no "major" crashes in the city and no traffic citations. Though it sounds like the Robotaxis should have gotten some citations. White said that the cars tend to ignore posted speed limits and noted that they consistently drive 5 mph over the limit in the city.Tesla told him it was safer. He replied that "at no time would we ever advocate that you program your vehicles to speed."The automaker has approximately 50 Rrobotaxis operating in Austin, while Waymo operates more than 250 vehicles in the city. Robotaxis play a major role in CEO Elon Musk's potentially record-breaking $1 trillion pay package. One of the 12 milestones in the agreement signed last year requires that the company has one million Robotaxis in commercial operation.
