After much anticipation, first looks at Tesla's Robotaxis are rolling in through videos from fans who were invited to be early access users of the potentially innovative self-driving electric vehicles, Electrek reported. Spoiler alert — the reviews are good.
The parameters around these test rides are incredibly limited, both by location and time, per Electrek. They won't operate in inclement weather and include a "safety monitor" in the passenger seat as well as backup teleoperators. The Robotaxi app is invite-only, and those invited can only bring one other passenger.
But for a test ride, all of these precautions are normal and useful, and even in this limited setting, fans seem to be reacting positively.
As shared by Electrek, one of the more detailed Robotaxi walk-throughs comes from Chuck Cook (@chazman), who posted a lengthy video on X detailing his full experience.
Another in-depth look comes from a YouTube video from Dave Lee (@Dave_Lee), whose test ride encountered some challenging maneuvers and showed complex real-time decision-making from the Tesla artificial intelligence.
Often, a fans-only event eliciting positive reviews is something to be taken with a big grain of salt, given that fans are by definition not objective and will likely always have something good to say about their favorite product.
While there were certainly some concerns from the launch, these videos show the general positivity surrounding it, which is a great sign for both the future of electric vehicles and for Tesla itself, which has needed some uplifting press given its shockingly dreadful 2025 thus far.
The visionary company has been promising updates on self-driving cars for years now — to the point where companies like Waymo have caught up and surpassed Tesla in this field — but it finally seems to be on the upswing. That can only be good news, not just for Tesla, but for self-driving cars and EVs in general.
Healthy competition benefits all parties in an industry, and in this case, may indicate a boom in EV sales. In an era of environmental strife around the globe, a massive increase in green vehicles could be a great step toward building a sustainable future.
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