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Tesla's robotaxi service in Austin barely exists at all

ObviousCommonSense | 2025-12-20 19:39 | 394 views

It has been reported many times that Tesla robotaxi fleet in Austin comprises 31 cars (Example source: [Tesla Robotaxi tracker](https://www.teslarobotaxitracker.com/)). However, that is only the number of unique MYs that have been part of the fleet at any point in the past 6 months, not the number of cars available for rides at any single time. The total number of cars concurrently available is **between 3 and 8**, depending on time of day. As a result the service is almost always unavailable and has very high waiting times when available (**33% total availability**, and most of that is at night). During the day the service has **less than 20% availability**, meaning that **if you are on the whitelist and you open the app during the day, over 80% of the time you cannot book a ride**. ***Quick stats:*** * 3 to 8 concurrently operating cars * Made available to about 2,000 to 5,000 whitelisted customers * \~250 trips per day * 33% availability (unusable 67% of the time, over 80% of the time during daytime) * 18 min average wait time when available * \~2,500 miles per day * \~250,000 miles in total since start of service in June * \~50 full-time employees needed to run the service (across multiple shifts) * 1 human supervisor per car, in the car, in addition to remote supervision * 9 crashes so far **Can this "robotaxi service" be said to even exist? You could serve more people at a much lower cost with a dozen of human drivers driving Toyota Corollas.**

Comments (67)
[deleted] 2025-12-21 18:01

It's enough to support one assholes ketamine habit, so they really got something going there.

Forsaken-Assist-1325 2025-12-21 18:13

Really surprising that Musks fairy tales don't live up to scrutiny 😂

catfromgarfield 2025-12-21 18:19

How can a Tesla investor compare this to Waymo and not be embarrassed idk

rdu3y6 2025-12-21 18:26

Smoke and mirrors just like the rest of Elon's frauds. He's the world's biggest conman.

McCatFace 2025-12-21 18:28

Wow, I forgot that this started way back in June!

WinterSector8317 2025-12-21 18:29

The stock is up and that’s the only thing that musk cares about

[deleted] 2025-12-21 18:36

Bullish! Should be good for another 20 point pop in the stock!

jiminuatron 2025-12-21 18:37

You're only missing the follow-car for the 'no safety supervisor' clips.

Doublestack00 2025-12-21 18:41

It's not even Robotaxi, it's a manned vehicle.

SolutionWarm6576 2025-12-21 18:41

They’re now recruiting people from the factory floor to be “AI Operators” to supervise “RoboTaxi” while still sitting in the front seat. lol

alphamd4 2025-12-21 18:47

I remember last week when last week when Elon sycophants were taking victory laps on 1 10 second video

Emotional-Heron2643 2025-12-21 18:51

I was just in Austin a couple of weeks ago. Waymos were everywhere and even fulfilled about a third of my Uber rides. As expected they worked really well

admin_default 2025-12-21 18:52

Nice research. The best explanation for why Tesla would operate so few vehicles in Austin is that they’re worried about crashing. They’ve already had 8 crashes since launch, even with a tiny fleet, so they’re understandably terrified about scaling the operation. Basically, **if they really only have 8 cars concurrently on the road and 8 cars have crashed since July, then they destroy 100% of their active fleet every 6 months or so.** If they put anymore cars on the road, it becomes impossible to keep hiding the truth.

bonfuto 2025-12-21 18:57

Haven't some people reported a lead car too?

wilhelmxmachina 2025-12-21 19:02

Really appreciate you providing those numbers. I suspected it was bad but it’s nice to quantify how bad.

AbacusExpert_Stretch 2025-12-21 19:08

Good Elon logic demo within this short but significant comment

AmbivelentApoplectic 2025-12-21 19:20

This is great analysis. Anything that breaks down the actual numbers is appreciated. It really seems this entire thing was an illusion for shareholders and influencers only. With no intent of ever offering a genuine transportation service in Austin. If global regulators take note this could come back to bite them for years.

WildFlowLing 2025-12-21 19:30

Remember their first “self driving autonomous delivery”? Suspiciously never happened again

Quercus_ 2025-12-21 19:49

This is consistent with the back of the envelope calculation I did during the first couple weeks of the robitaxi roll out. Everything was being videoed and released, but I did a quick poisson statistics analysis based on number of significant failures during the first week, assuming 10 cars. Significant failures meaning things that people released on videotape, with general commentary saying this was a bad mistake. Dropping passengers off in the middle of an active intersection, driving on the wrong side of a two-way road and entering a left turn lane from the left side, speeding and slamming on the brakes going around a parked police car, and so on. That analysis showed that the 95% confidence interval of the mean time between significant failures, was between 3-8 days per car. This seems fairly consistent with a failure requiring replacement rate of 1 per 6 months.

Sanpaku 2025-12-21 19:50

Does it pump the stock price? Does it allow sell-side analysts to pluck future earnings estimates from the stratophere? Then its functioning as intended.

Apprehensive-Box-8 2025-12-21 19:51

If you’re as deep in Tesla stocks as many of the investors, you just go with the hype until it crashes. Investing is about staying above a specific return rate as well as investing in the best available option. Many alternate options are hard to justify right now, while TSLA is probably still well above the goal ROI —> no need to divest —> keep the hype up.

Pineapplepizzaracoon 2025-12-21 20:09

Yeah but the more cars they crash the less inventory buildup they have ;)

admin_default 2025-12-21 20:26

Suggests things haven’t improved much/at all since launch. And with so few cars, they aren’t collecting anywhere near enough training data. They’re caught in their own web of deception - determined to hide their mistakes instead of learn from them.

BravoSierra480 2025-12-21 20:29

Uber uses Waymo? Didn't realize that (not yet in my area, the coverage stops 3 miles from my house). When you use the Uber app do they give you a choice to use Waymo? Friends of mine who have used Waymo have always used the Waymo app.

daveo18 2025-12-21 20:29

The number of actual, driverless, non-remote control robotaxis anywhere in America remains firmly at zero. With some prodding you can even get Grok to admit teslas “FSD” is an ADAS level 2 system.

SpectrumWoes 2025-12-21 20:31

This ☝️ All that matters is the stock price. Whether what’s promised actually works is irrelevant

Dmoan 2025-12-21 20:36

You mean to say we will have flying cars driven by robots next year stocks hits all time high..

Forsaken-Assist-1325 2025-12-21 20:38

I fully expect Elon to announce (flying) robotaxis to Mars by the end of 2027.

Emotional-Heron2643 2025-12-21 20:40

Correct. I don't have the Waymo app. When I requested rides with Uber, the Uber app would give me an option for using a Waymo which usually came with a longer wait. I used it the few times it was quicker. If you wanted to use human drivers you wouldn't have to use the Waymo option

lnxgod 2025-12-21 20:41

Prodding I just asked it said it right away

Brave_Nerve_6871 2025-12-21 20:46

3 to 8 taxis in Austin? That's a trillion-dollar business right there

Born-Gur-1275 2025-12-21 21:18

And full self-flying to Mars. Hop on and go. What he won’t say is how to get back to Earth. You’re on your own. One more thing, bring your own food.

Remarkable_Cat5946 2025-12-21 21:20

Imagine if they put 16 taxis- 2 trillion dollar biz and double market cap!

rellett 2025-12-21 22:09

It's just to keep the scam going so he doesn't get sued as he released a robotaxi even though it's not ready

appmapper 2025-12-21 22:20

>Dropping passengers off in the middle of an active intersection, driving on the wrong side of a two-way road and entering a left turn lane from the left side, speeding and slamming on the brakes going around a parked police car, and so on. Technology has made us too accepting of using non-finished products. "It's in beta! There are going to be mistakes". By the time the product is available to use, these issues cannot exist when it's driving a multi-ton battering ram.

Bendy_McBendyThumb 2025-12-21 22:26

Wait it’s 9 crashes now? So their average has dropped even lower from 40,000 miles per accident on average vs a human’s 500,000 miles? Awesome.

amahendra 2025-12-21 22:30

BuT tHe StOcK pRiCe HiT aLl TiMe HiGh…

[deleted] 2025-12-21 23:04

I appear to be banned from an elonmusk thread LOL. I do not even know why it came up on my feed because I do not remember it. I guess they just wanted to tell me that. It must have been something I said about elon musk being a freaking goon and a detriment to society.

JuculianD 2025-12-21 23:26

You will never reach a good daylight-time coverage without lidar. (Camera gets blinded by the sun). Furthermore the same applies to stronger rain as well as fog...

Specman9 2025-12-22 00:38

It's a great fraud though. This "fleet" of a few "Robotaxis" with drivers has tricked Wall Street into giving them hundreds of billions in market cap. It is all hilariously stupid.

Specman9 2025-12-22 00:41

By being amazingly ignorant, getting other true believers to brigade against critics, and banning you from any discussion any time they are able to do so.

External_Koala971 2025-12-22 01:04

Waymo has thousands.

larkinowl 2025-12-22 01:12

Waymo in Austin collected training data for over 5 years before picking up paying passengers!

Sunshine3432 2025-12-22 01:27

idk, but the stock price went up like 20% after the day of the launch

admin_default 2025-12-22 01:36

And they were in Phoenix before that. They had 250 cars on the road in 2020. And they had several thousand by 2022.

ShortFatStupid666 2025-12-22 02:31

And water And Oxygen And a shovel & sleeping bag (don’t forget materials to build a shelter

dorchet 2025-12-22 02:47

its only available to like minded hive members to advertise the pump and dump of the stock. its not a real service. you spent more time on this post than anyone spent on tesla robotaxi service.

KW160 2025-12-22 04:45

Wow, it takes more manpower to supervise a robo than it would to just drive a normal car.

ArQ7777 2025-12-22 04:48

Musk only needs 10 cars to make news and lure eyeballs. More than 10 is excessive.

Calman00 2025-12-22 05:38

Be honest. Do you really need that extra “barely” word in your statement ?

bullrider_21 2025-12-22 06:30

Tesla has filed a new patent to integrate Starlink satellite antenna on the roof of its EVs. It is bulky and ugly which Musk used to describe lidars. But Musk may use it to remote control its robotaxis. It provides better and wider coverage than 5G and has low latency of <100 ms. Musk may remove the safety monitor and teleoperate with the antenna, giving the illusion of full autonomy.

VitaminPb 2025-12-22 07:47

Imagine if Austin had a blackout and the Robotaxis were affected like the Waymo’s in SF. Nobody would even notice.

TheBrianWeissman 2025-12-22 07:48

Sounds like the Vegas tunnel. Millions in infrastructure, vehicles and salaries to accomplish what an underground tram could do at 10% of the cost. Elon truly is a genius.

TheBrianWeissman 2025-12-22 07:53

Sounds like more fun than having your hand sliced off by sheet metal.

PM_ME_SAD_STUFF_PLZ 2025-12-22 12:10

I've heard enough, $1Tn more to Elon musk

Poozipper 2025-12-22 12:23

The only thing keeping Musk from real success is reality.

Sharaku_US 2025-12-22 14:02

This is bullish. More calls on TSLA. /s

[deleted] 2025-12-22 15:52

It is NOT a Robotaxi. "Robo" implies autonomy. FSD is Supervised. It doesn't matter if the person is in the car or remotely controlling it. Tesla currently has ZERO autonomous miles on the road. Even the 'from factory to parking' is in a closed private area (and tbh, I never saw proof of that).# \--- The Waymo CEO said it best: if you need a license, it's not autonomous.

jatufin 2025-12-22 18:01

The service exists for the believers to have something to hold onto. It doesn't have to make sense to outsiders.

Fantastic-Head-128 2025-12-22 21:18

I have no idea what an average ride costs, let's say it's $20. 250 rides/day at $20 average comes out to $100 in revenue per employee. No wonder the stock is up. /s

BringBackUsenet 2025-12-22 21:56

9 crashes in 250k miles is atrocious, and that is with supervision! These thingg should not be allowed out on public streets.

BringBackUsenet 2025-12-22 21:57

TSLA "investors" are not investing in the company or its products. They are investing in the gullibility of other "investors".

BringBackUsenet 2025-12-22 22:00

They operate just enough to say they are "running robotaxis in Austin". Everything Tesla and Musk does is just about perpetuating the illusion.

BringBackUsenet 2025-12-22 22:11

This is it folks! This is what it's all about. There will only be just enough from Tesla to keep the illusion that it's a real company with real products alive so the ponzi can continue forever, but let's remember they never do.

BringBackUsenet 2025-12-22 22:13

[https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED286154](https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED286154)

BringBackUsenet 2025-12-22 22:14

With \*supervision\*!

admin_default 2025-12-22 23:25

Electrek basically says this same thing in their report today: https://electrek.co/2025/12/22/tesla-robotaxi-project-austin-much-smaller-than-musk-claims/

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