Latest news with #HerbertOng
Boston Globe
10 hours ago
- Automotive
- Boston Globe
Tesla robotaxi videos show speeding, driving into wrong lane
In two other posts on X, initial riders in driverless Model Ys shared footage of Teslas speeding. A vehicle carrying Sawyer Merritt, a Tesla investor, reached 35 miles per hour shortly after passing a 30 miles per hour speed limit sign, a video he posted shows. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up In a separate live stream from Herbert Ong, a YouTuber with more than 123,000 subscribers, he commented that the vehicle was going faster than the posted limit of 35 miles per hour. Advertisement 'It's going at 39 right now, which is perfect, right, because I don't want to drive at 35, and it's driving at the same flow of traffic,' Ong said. 'If everyone else is driving at this speed, you want to be at the same speed.' Representatives for Tesla, the Austin Police Department and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on the videos. The automaker recalled more than 362,000 vehicles in February 2023 after NHTSA said its driver-assistance system may allow cars to infringe on local traffic laws. Advertisement Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk celebrated the start of Tesla's robotaxi operations on Sunday, congratulating employees for what he said was a successful launch. Tesla shares jumped as much as 11% on Monday, their biggest intraday jump since April 9.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Tesla Robotaxi Videos Show Speeding, Driving Into Wrong Lane
(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc.'s self-driving taxis appeared to violate traffic laws during the company's first day offering paid rides, with one customer capturing footage of a left turn gone wrong and others traveling in cars that exceeded posted speed limits. Bezos Wedding Draws Protests, Soul-Searching Over Tourism in Venice One Architect's Quest to Save Mumbai's Heritage From Disappearing NYC Congestion Toll Cuts Manhattan Gridlock by 25%, RPA Reports In a video taken by Rob Maurer, an investor who used to host a Tesla podcast, the Model Y he's riding in enters an Austin intersection in a left-turn-only lane. The Tesla hesitates to make the turn, swerves right and proceeds into an unoccupied lane meant for traffic moving in the opposite direction. A honking horn can be heard as the Tesla re-enters the correct lane over a double-yellow line, which drivers aren't supposed to cross. In two other posts on X, initial riders in driverless Model Ys shared footage of Teslas speeding. A vehicle carrying Sawyer Merritt, a Tesla investor, reached 35 miles per hour shortly after passing a 30 miles per hour speed limit sign, a video he posted shows. In a separate live stream from Herbert Ong, a YouTuber with more than 123,000 subscribers, he commented that the vehicle was going faster than the posted limit of 35 miles per hour. 'It's going at 39 right now, which is perfect, right, because I don't want to drive at 35, and it's driving at the same flow of traffic,' Ong said. 'If everyone else is driving at this speed, you want to be at the same speed.' Representatives for Tesla, the Austin Police Department and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on the videos. The automaker recalled more than 362,000 vehicles in February 2023 after NHTSA said its driver-assistance system may allow cars to infringe on local traffic laws. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk celebrated the start of Tesla's robotaxi operations on Sunday, congratulating employees for what he said was a successful launch. Tesla shares jumped as much as 11% on Monday, their biggest intraday jump since April 9. Luxury Counterfeiters Keep Outsmarting the Makers of $10,000 Handbags Is Mark Cuban the Loudmouth Billionaire that Democrats Need for 2028? Ken Griffin on Trump, Harvard and Why Novice Investors Won't Beat the Pros The US Has More Copper Than China But No Way to Refine All of It Can 'MAMUWT' Be to Musk What 'TACO' Is to Trump? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Entrepreneur
11 hours ago
- Automotive
- Entrepreneur
Tesla Debuts Self-Driving Robotaxis For the First Time
Tesla officially launched its first robotaxis on Sunday to a small group of invited users, marking the beginning of what CEO Elon Musk envisions as a promising new business. The robotaxis are driverless 2025 Tesla Model Y cars outfitted with "unsupervised self-driving technology." For the launch, which took place in Tesla's hometown of Austin, per TechCrunch, a Tesla employee sat in the passenger seat as a safety precaution, but the passenger seat did not have a steering wheel or pedals. The first riders were a small group of retail investors and social media influencers selected by Tesla. One recipient, Herbert Ong, said in a video on X that Tesla had extended invites to 14 people. Ong, who conducts daily interviews with Tesla experts on X, noted from his experience in the robotaxi that the car was able to speed up and park well on its own. Passengers paid $4.20 for each ride. Other early invitees also took to social media to livestream their experiences. In a Sunday video viewed 1.6 million times on X, Chuck Cook, one of the invitees to try the Tesla robotaxi, said he was impressed when the car navigated a parking lot "confidently," taking pedestrians and other cars into account. The robotaxi asked for a tip at the end of the ride, then said it was "just kidding." Related: Elon Musk Announces the 'Cybercab' and Other Surprises at Tesla's 'We, Robot' Event. Here's What to Know. Another influencer, Sawyer Merritt, who has over 900,000 followers on X, said on the platform that his robotaxi experience was "awesome" and that it was "pretty wild" to see a Tesla with no one in the driver's seat. Meanwhile, Dongjin (DJ) Seo, a co-founder and vice president of implants at Musk-led Neuralink, wrote in a post on X on Sunday that the robotaxi ride he took was "an incredible display of real-world AI." The videos taken by early invitees show the robotaxis driving short distances, navigating turns and intersections, and parking successfully. Here is my experience (in 4K) from earlier today in one of the world's first ever public Tesla Robotaxi rides in Austin, Texas with FSD Unsupervised! No-one is in the driver seat and the safety monitor in the passenger seat does not have a steering or pedals. It was awesome. — Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 22, 2025 The best tech feels like magic because it's so normal you don't even notice it… until you do. Took a ride in a Tesla Robotaxi today. In this clip, it pulls aside on a narrow street with construction, making room for an oncoming car that illegally turns into our lane. The… — DJ Seo (@djseo) June 23, 2025 Musk congratulated the Tesla AI software and chip design teams on Sunday, calling the robotaxi launch "successful" and noting that both the AI chip and software for self-driving cars were built from the ground up at Tesla. "Culmination of a decade of hard work," Musk wrote. Super congratulations to the @Tesla_AI software & chip design teams on a successful @Robotaxi launch!! Culmination of a decade of hard work. Both the AI chip and software teams were built from scratch within Tesla. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 22, 2025 Musk said last year at Cyber Roundup 2024, Tesla's annual shareholder meeting, that Tesla robotaxis could quickly expand around the country. There are already millions of Teslas on the road, with nearly 700,000 Teslas sold in the U.S. in 2024 alone. A software update could allow existing Teslas to act as robotaxis and earn money for owners. "You can add or subtract your car to the fleet whenever you want," Musk said at the event. Related: Uber CEO Wants to Partner With Tesla on Robotaxis Because 'No One Wants to Compete Against Tesla or Elon' The only other carmaker offering fully autonomous paid rides in the U.S. is Alphabet's Waymo. Waymo's cars rely on sensors and software to drive on their own. The company has a head start on robotaxis compared to Tesla: Waymo provides more than 250,000 paid robotaxi trips per week to cities like Phoenix, San Francisco, and Austin. The company is planning to bring autonomous ride-hailing services to Atlanta, Miami, and Washington D.C. next year.
