68-year-old retired Christian Pfister walks his big Pyrenees, Wally, every morning on his calm neighborhood street-touched streets for one family, duplexes and apartments in the southeast Antine, where he has lived in the last 26 years. About three weeks ago, during one of this morning walks, he noticed a white Tesla Y with a Texas manufacturer’s plate gear, while the dark -colored Tesla, closely fitted with it.
He watched Tesla’s tandem led the left turn on the street up in front of him, disappeared around the block half a mile, then drove again – again, again, then twice, then again and again.
“That’s all they did – all day and over and over and over and over again,” says the pfister in an interview.
Since a few weeks ago, a handful of the pfster has noticed a handful of white “Teslas” (and also a few black and gray Teslas) often visited Pfister’s small neighborhood streets, driving on the same routes and repeatedly going to the same turn, albeit with drivers. Fate It is said that they saw someone in the passenger seat with drivers without drivers. Another resident saw Teslas several times without anyone.
Tesla is trying to vehicles in the neighborhood because by the end of this month it is about to wait a long time to wait for her self -taxi service in Austin. EV, a company that has been working with autonomous technologies for over a decade, has stated that it is finally ready to fight Robotaxi’s competitors such as Alphabet, whose subsidiary Waymo has already offered 10 million paid run and operating in four cities and plans to start several roads quickly. Elon Musk assured investors that Tesla’s Robotaxi service, which would initially start with a small number of 10-20 vehicles, would expand to several other cities by the end of the year. But it will all start in Austine, especially in this small neighborhood -because Tesla proves its concept and smoothes any karks.
When Tesla’s robotaxed observations began a few weeks ago, they raised anxiety among some people living in the neighborhood. A couple of residents went to the community messaging platform Nextdoor to ask their neighbors why the White Teslas – drivers – in the parking lot in front of their homes for a long time. “It forgives me,” one woman announced.
The 24 -year -old Anastasia Maren, who moved to the neighborhood last month, said she saw Teslas Drive Pro or Partion in front of her duplex since she moved, especially when she’s walking for a walk.
“They are staring at you as if you are traveling to them, or you are the one that should not be here,” says Malen about the drivers. She says she sometimes saw vehicles traveling only with someone in the passenger seat, she often sees a person in a driver’s seat controlling vehicles. “Sometimes I see a person actually turning the circle,” she says.
Robert Yeats, a 37-year-old resident of Austin, who lives in an apartment complex further north in the neighborhood than Maren and Pfister, says he sees that the White Teslas are in front of his apartment, stood with their dangerous lights, often in about four groups. In some cases, Teslas was built in the middle of the road with dangerous lights on, forcing other drivers to go around them. According to one resident, the tests occurred at 10 p.m. None of the inhabitants Fate Talked to the saying, they received a message from Tesla or information about attempts in their neighborhood.
Austin’s inhabitants are accustomed to seeing self -driving vehicles throughout the city. Waymo cars in 2023 Started map map map with boat security drivers and has since started offering passenger services throughout the city without vehicle security drivers. Pfister said Fate He saw Wamos a night stood in front of empty batches in the same neighborhood. A few years ago, Cruise released Robotax on Austin’s streets before the parent Motors suspended all rides and later closed the Ride-Hail after a major accident in San Francisco.
However, Tesla’s observations add questions that many industry observers have about the viability of the company’s technology and the attitude towards autonomous driving. Although other autonomous vehicle companies needed to be digitally map roads and surroundings before launching, Tesla says that it only does not require a high -definition map, radar or Lidar technology. According to the company, its attitude towards autonomous driving is cheaper and more adapted than competition: instead of a few months of map map, Tesla cars can find out the terrain wherever they are. But if this is the case, why is Teslas riding the same streets of one neighborhood – why do most vehicles drive them?
“I was thinking, well, maybe they are just in the driver’s seat, so if something is wrong, they can grab the steering wheel. But they actually drive the car,” says the pfister, noting that the drivers have seen their hands on the steering wheel. “They actually drive the machine so he’s not without a driver. I don’t really understand.”
Tesla did not respond to the request to comment.
Tesla also conducted tests in at least two other parts of Texas. In a separate isolated Austin Street, an attempt with emergency vehicles was provided because Fate Previously reported. Tesla also tried in a training institution in Florence, Texas, along with the Texas Society Security Department’s disaster reconstruction team. During the event, public agencies found Tesla robotaxe scenarios so that the company could gather information on how to respond to various meetings with emergency staff and equipment such as crash scenes or flashing bulbs and sirens, says a spokesman for the Texas Public Security Department.
But these are a few neighborhood blocks in the southeast woven, where Tesla is conducting the usual real -world tests within a few weeks before starting. Here is the Tesla Compressor Station, right next to a busy street – the only station in about two miles – just as the Tesla collision center is less than two miles. There are quiet streets in the neighborhood, though Teslas will have to cross the busy road to get to the charging station. There are no sidewalks in the residential streets, so residents walk their dogs or pushing wheelchairs on the street – giving cars to act with obstacles in a controlled environment. Three residents tell Fate Cars appear to be operating at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour.
Tesla is approaching the end of June, which Musk is about to run – just three weeks before the end of the month. The Bloomberg report suggested that the company reached 12 June. However, as of June 10, Tuesday, it seems that some important elements of the checklists have been exceptional before the start of the checklists. Tesla provided drafts, but had not been completed by emergency managers, nor had the emergency training training for the Austin Transport and Austin Fire Department of the Department of Works since Tuesday, agencies told agencies. Fate; As Fate It was previously reported that EV manufacturer City told employees that those items would be provided before the company was started at the service.
This story was initially displayed by fortuna.com