Tesla’s Shadow Taxis: Where the Robot Drives and the Human Watches
Tesla has crept back into the spotlight, but not with a bombastic press event or a tweetstorm from Elon Musk. Instead, the move is quiet, almost stealthy, deep in the heart of Texas. In Austin, a fleet of Tesla Model Ys now glides through the streets bearing the proud badge of “robotaxi.” Yet as always with Tesla, the devil hides in the details.
These vehicles appear to drive themselves, guided by the much-promised Autopilot that was supposed to have turned science fiction into daily routine years ago. But there is still someone inside. Not behind the wheel, but in the passenger seat: an operator whose presence is more cosmetic than functional. This allows Tesla to claim the cars are driverless while in truth, a human hand stands by to catch the AI’s moods before they turn dangerous.
The service isn’t available to just anyone. This is no lottery of the everyman, but a curated privilege for social media influencers loyal to the Tesla brand. The kind whose profile photos already include a charging cable in the background and who utter Musk’s name with devotional reverence.
A ride costs $4.20. Not bad, right? But getting a ride is another matter entirely. The robotaxi is summonable only between 6 a.m. and midnight, and only when the sky is clear and umbrellas have no reason to leave the closet. What happens when a thunderstorm suddenly hits the city? No one knows. Maybe the Tesla just pulls over and sulks like a child who wandered into a puddle.
Booking is done through an app that ticks all the boxes of our digital age: screens, data, music selection, everything is polished, just like Waymo or any other glossy, futuristic ride service. And yet Tesla isn’t shouting about this from the rooftops. Why? Because every glitch, every technical hiccup, could land like a knife in the heart of a company whose glow is already fading in America, Europe, and China. Once an icon, now a question mark.
So Tesla’s robotaxi is here - sort of. Standing on the doorstep, still hesitating to come inside.
