Tesla is apparently still struggling with some fairly basic aspects of its Robotaxi service in Texas. As Electrek reports, several users have recently documented problems with routing, pickups and drop-offs – including Tesla owners and supporters who have been testing the service within its approved operating areas.
In one particularly striking case, Reggie Overton, who describes himself as a Tesla Ambassador, wanted to travel just 2.3 miles (3.7 kilometres), but the Robotaxi app calculated a journey time of one hour and six minutes. Customer support reportedly told him that the estimate was a bug.
The estimated journey time then briefly dropped to 16 minutes before jumping back to 57 minutes. According to Overton, however, the actual route never changed. A support employee could see the same 57-minute journey but was unable to reroute the vehicle. In the end, Overton and the other passengers changed the destination, got out and ordered an Uber for the rest of the journey.
“For a 2.3-mile trip, this was an incredibly frustrating experience especially when support had no way to correct what was clearly a routing problem,” Overton wrote. He initially also complained: “I didn’t even get a refund.” That changed after his account of the journey attracted more than 630,000 views.
