Tesla is preparing to bring its purpose-built Cybercab to public roads in Austin, Texas, potentially as soon as this month, according to reports. The planned rollout would mark an important step in the company's push into autonomous ride-hailing, with employees expected to receive rides in the vehicles before Cybercabs are added to Tesla's robotaxi service in the city.
The move comes as Waymo, the leading autonomous car service, continues to expand rapidly across the US. Waymo now operates nearly 4,000 autonomous vehicles across 15 metro areas and handles about half a million passenger trips each week. However, its expansion has also exposed problems involving unusual driving situations, traffic congestion and emergencies.
As Tesla prepares to put a vehicle without pedals or a steering wheel on public roads, the company faces a clear challenge: proving that its approach can compete with a rival that already has thousands of driverless cars carrying passengers.
Tesla Prepares For Cybercab Rollout
Tesla has told employees that it plans to begin rolling out the Cybercab in Austin by offering rides to staff on public roads, before incorporating the vehicles into its robotaxi service a few days later, according to the report.
The Cybercab is designed specifically for autonomous driving and does not have pedals or a steering wheel. Tesla sees the vehicle as a crucial part of its longer-term robotaxi ambitions, with the company eventually planning to deploy it for an autonomous ride-hailing service.
The planned launch follows several weeks of preparation. Tesla has been test driving the Cybercab, giving employees rides on private roads and conducting training with local first responders, according to the report.
The company began testing the production version of the Cybercab on public roads in June. Production of the vehicle is expected to increase later this year.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment about the reported rollout.
If the Austin launch happens as planned, it would give Tesla an opportunity to put its purpose-built robotaxi into a real-world environment and begin building experience with passengers. The initial employee rides would also come before the vehicles are introduced into Tesla's robotaxi service in Austin.
That puts Tesla at an interesting point in the race for autonomous ride-hailing. The company has spent years promoting its ambitions for self-driving technology, but Waymo has already established a sizeable driverless operation.
Waymo has more than quintupled the number of autonomous cars on the road to nearly 4,000, up from about 700 early last year. Its vehicles are now operating in 15 metro areas, with the company recently going fully driverless in Denver, Las Vegas, San Diego and Tampa.
Passengers are taking about half a million Waymo trips each week.
That scale gives Waymo an obvious head start as Tesla prepares to put the Cybercab into service. However, Waymo's rapid expansion has also shown how difficult it can be for driverless vehicles to deal with situations that fall outside ordinary driving conditions.
Waymo's Expansion Faces Driverless Challenges
One of the clearest examples came on July 4 in San Francisco per a New York Times report, when more than 100,000 people gathered along the waterfront for a fireworks show over the Golden Gate Bridge.
As crowds attempted to leave, Waymo vehicles blocked intersections and contributed to severe congestion. Some drivers were stuck behind the electric robo-taxis for more than three hours, while several Waymos had to be towed after their batteries ran out in the gridlock.
At least two vehicles drove over fireworks, with one catching fire.
Rose Peterson was travelling in one of the vehicles with her fiancée after ordering a Waymo to take them back to their hotel. When the car stopped at an intersection, a man placed a firework on the road and set it alight.
The Waymo moved forward and drove over the firework as it exploded underneath the vehicle. Peterson said the car smelled as though it was on fire, but it continued until eventually stalling at another intersection. She and her fiancée then left the vehicle and walked to their hotel.
A journey that should have taken five minutes instead lasted about an hour.
The incident was described as an 'edge case', a term used in the driverless car industry for unscripted situations that the vehicles have not been trained to handle. However, the growing number of incidents involving Waymo has raised questions about whether some of these situations are truly unusual.
Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University emeritus professor who specialises in autonomous vehicles, said the technology can struggle to recognise when it is facing something unfamiliar.
'This technology struggles to know when it's in a novel situation,' Dr. Koopman said. 'And when it's in a novel situation, it's prone to overconfidence and spectacularly stupid failure.'
Waymo's response has included handing control of vehicles to remote human operators when problems arise.
The company has also faced three federal recalls since December for software problems, including one involving vehicles entering flooded roads. That compares with three recalls during the previous 22 months.
Another incident occurred during a power outage in San Francisco in December, when nearly 1,600 Waymos were left frozen for at least two minutes.
Waymo has defended its approach. Sandy Karp, a company spokeswoman, said the recent recalls were proactive and that the rate of edge cases was decreasing as the company expanded. She added that the incidents that do occur help inform ongoing improvements.
Franklin Trujillo, who leads Waymo's team responsible for expansion into new cities, said the company has been able to accelerate its rollouts because software developed in one location increasingly works in another without needing to be retrained for every city.
Waymo's ambition is for its technology to deal with edge cases 'regardless if we've seen them before', Trujillo said. He also pointed to the company's safety record, which showed 94 percent fewer serious-injury crashes than human drivers.
'We're constantly learning, constantly improving our product,' he said.
Yet regulators and local officials are increasingly focused on how driverless vehicles behave during major events and emergencies.
Bilal Mahmood, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, called for city departments to explain what went wrong during the July 4 fireworks. Mayor Daniel Lurie also asked California's transportation secretary to establish operational standards for driverless cars during major events and emergencies.
Lurie later backed federal legislation that would require driverless car companies to maintain a hotline for emergency responders and establish a minimum standard for how emergency medical workers can move a robo-taxi when necessary.
Jonathan Morrison, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said the agency had identified 'a clear pattern' of autonomous vehicles interfering with police, firefighters and paramedics.
'Emergency scenes are not rare or extreme "edge cases,"' he wrote.
The agency has started developing federal safety standards for driverless cars and has summoned companies in the sector to meetings to discuss potential fixes.
Another incident involved Elliot Slade, who was travelling in a Waymo with his fiancée in May when the vehicle entered a highway construction zone where the right lane had been closed.
Slade said the car began driving like a 'frightened animal', swerving around traffic cones and accelerating to highway speed in the closed lane. It then passed a truck and workers while California Highway Patrol officers sounded their sirens and shouted, 'Stop, Waymo!'
Slade said he and his fiancée were frightened enough that he placed his arm across her chest 'just in case we crashed'. He also pressed a button to call for support, but said no one answered until the vehicle eventually left the highway.
Weeks later, Waymo recalled software on some vehicles for entering freeway construction zones and temporarily removed its cars from highways while it developed a fix.
The company has since resumed freeway routes in Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Tesla's Cybercab will therefore enter a market where Waymo already has substantial real-world experience, but where that experience has also exposed the difficulties of operating driverless cars at scale.
The next major test for Waymo in San Francisco will come in October during Fleet Week, when the US Navy's Blue Angels are expected to draw large crowds to the waterfront.
Stephen Sherrill, a member of the city's Board of Supervisors, has called for a September 3 hearing to coordinate city agencies and prepare for potential problems.
'Waymo is terrible at addressing traffic congestion under abnormal driving conditions during these large scale events,' he said.
Karp said Waymo would remain in close contact and coordination with city officials ahead of Fleet Week.
For Tesla, the Cybercab's arrival in Austin offers a chance to enter this increasingly competitive market with a vehicle designed specifically around autonomous operation. However, Waymo's existing fleet, passenger volume and experience give it a substantial starting point.
Tesla will have to show that its Cybercab can do more than drive without a steering wheel or pedals. It will need to demonstrate that the vehicle can cope when roads, traffic and people behave in ways that were not expected.
That may ultimately be the real test of whether Tesla can catch Waymo.
