A Tesla robotaxi in Texas reportedly dropped a passenger nearly 5km away from his vehicle after the service determined it was too late to complete the journey, highlighting concerns over the reliability of Tesla’s autonomous ride-hailing service.
The incident was shared on X on August 18 by TexasTSLA, a Dallas-based account that describes itself as a four-time Tesla owner. According to the report, the passenger was left about 4.8km from his car because the robotaxi’s operating shift had ended. Customer support reportedly told him there was nothing that could be done.
The same passenger said the Tesla app had warned at around 9.30pm that his destination was beyond the vehicle’s remaining service time. Two days later, he claimed to have encountered further problems after taking three robotaxi rides in a single day.
During one trip, the vehicle reportedly missed the intended drop-off and required remote assistance to reach the destination. On another journey, the robotaxi repeatedly passed the group, eventually prompting them to abandon the ride and walk.
By August 21, the Tesla owner had also recorded footage of a robotaxi stopping in the middle of a road while his own vehicle circled nearby and missed its drop-off points. He later said he had stopped using the service despite remaining within Tesla’s approved operating zone.
Another Tesla owner and company ambassador, Reggie Overton, reported a separate problem on August 22 after the app estimated that a 3.7km journey would take one hour and six minutes.
After contacting support, Overton was told the unusually long journey estimate was caused by a software bug. The estimated travel time initially fell to 16 minutes before jumping back to 57 minutes, even though the displayed route reportedly remained unchanged.
Support was unable to reroute the vehicle, according to Overton, who eventually changed the destination, left the robotaxi and booked an Uber. He said the Uber travelled three times the distance in just 14 minutes. His post attracted more than 630,000 views.
Tesla’s official robotaxi account later responded, saying the fare had been refunded and that the company would continue working to improve the service.
The complaints come despite Tesla reporting strong performance for its autonomous fleet. During the company’s second-quarter earnings call on July 22, AI software vice-president Ashok Elluswamy said Tesla robotaxis had travelled more than 611,550km without a safety supervisor across six cities in two US states, with “zero notable incidents” reported by the company.
However, other incidents have continued to draw attention. A video posted on August 17 appeared to show an unsupervised Model Y driving through a row of bollards in Austin before continuing along the road.
Previous reports have also raised questions about Tesla’s remote-operation system. Unredacted submissions to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reportedly described two Austin crashes involving remote operators, including one incident in which a vehicle mounted a kerb and struck a metal fence.
Tesla had previously disclosed 14 crashes in Austin since the robotaxi service launched, while NHTSA contacted the company following videos showing robotaxis travelling on the wrong side of the road and braking unexpectedly.
Tesla expanded its robotaxi service to Dallas and Houston on April 18. The Houston operating area initially covered around 65 sq km, while the Dallas service centred on Highland Park. By comparison, Tesla’s Austin operating zone had expanded to roughly 635 sq km after almost a year.
Alphabet-owned Waymo, meanwhile, has operated fully driverless services in both Dallas and Houston since February and was carrying around 500,000 paid autonomous rides each week across 10 US cities as of March.
Tesla is also preparing to unveil its Cybercab in Austin on September 3. The two-seat vehicle is designed without a steering wheel or pedals, meaning passengers will have no conventional controls to take over if something goes wrong.
The latest complaints underscore a key challenge facing the autonomous taxi industry: convincing passengers that driverless vehicles can not only navigate roads safely, but also reliably complete the simple task of getting people to where they actually want to go.
