Tesla robotaxi raises safety concerns on first day of launch as autonomous vehicle struggles: 'I find it most disturbing'

The vaunted, long-awaited Tesla robotaxi finally hit streets in Austin, Texas, on Sunday — but in keeping with the electric vehicle maker's rocky year, there were distinct ups and downs. Nonetheless, the company got through the launch without any disasters and likely considers it to be an overall success.

Per the Austin American-Statesman, the limited launch was on an invite-only basis. Tesla influencers were among those recruited to participate in the rollout, which involved "10 or 20 Model Y vehicles operating in a limited area."

In late May, Tesla's targeted mid-June debut date remained in doubt amid reports the autonomous vehicles hadn't been tested without a human safety driver behind the wheel. Tesla CEO Elon Musk attributed launch delays to an abundance of caution.

As recently as June 10, Musk tempered expectations for a tentative rollout date. "We are being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift," he wrote on the social platform X two days before the robotaxi was planned to launch, per Bloomberg.

Tesla's self-driving features have repeatedly come under scrutiny for safety-related reasons. But as a concept, and when well-executed, driverless electric taxis have the potential to reduce heat-trapping pollution at scale, improve accessibility in cities with limited public transportation options, and encourage more drivers to make their next cars EVs.

The host of the YouTube channel Tesla Daily (@TeslaDaily) was one of the influencers invited to participate, and an excerpt of their full-trip video appeared on Reddit's r/SelfDrivingCars. In that snippet, a "significant" glitch occurred, according to the post, as the driverless car experienced a navigation issue at an intersection, failing to turn left and then driving on the wrong side of a double yellow line.

Watch now: Does clean energy really cause blackouts?

"Ooof, that's not a good look," one commenter stated. Another user speculated that a "remote operator" intervened to steady the wayward Tesla, as Tesla has reportedly been leaning on teleoperators to supervise the driving as well, suggesting that the cars won't self-correct in the way the robotaxi in the clip did.

Someone else raised a similar concern, citing the lack of reaction from the person in the passenger seat during the incident — and the fact that the robotaxis were operating within strict physical borders.

"I find it most disturbing that the safety guy's surprise level is at 0%. You can tell he's seen that s*** before. Within a geofence area," they wrote. Neither commenter was alone in their suspicions about whether the robotaxis were truly autonomous.

On X, a user shared a screenshot from a different influencer's video — one in which an apparent override control was visible — and opined that the self-driving feature was illusory.

"Turns out the safety supervisor in each $TSLA robotaxi has his right thumb constantly on a button — so probably programmed to be an emergency stop button. Makes sense obviously, but yeah — there's smoke and mirrors," they tweeted.

The Cool Down was unable to confirm if that claim about the button is true, other than to confirm the button is there, but TCD did confirm that the Tesla employee passengers are able to intervene through the touch screen in the middle. More notably, Electrek and Reuters have reported that there is "plenty of teleoperation," as Electrek put it, allowing additional employees to monitor the driverless vehicles through cameras and overtake the controls as needed.

Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.