Riders of Tesla’s Robotaxi service in Houston are reporting long detours and pickup points the app will not accept, Business Insider reported on Wednesday. The problems come days after Tesla greatly expanded the area the service covers.
Tesla announced the larger service area on Monday with a post reading “Houston, we have liftoff.” The new zone, drawn in the shape of a rocket, stretches from northwest Harris County to downtown Houston and Bellaire.
The expansion added an estimated 229 square miles, according to RobotaxiTracker, a site that monitors the service. Waymo’s robotaxi zone in Houston covers about 50 square miles, Business Insider reported.
However, parts of that area do not appear to work. Ethan McKanna, who runs RobotaxiTracker and used to work at Tesla, tried to set pickups downtown, inside the published zone. The app told him the location was not available, Electrek first reported.
McKanna also found a trip quote of about 40 minutes for a two-block ride downtown. The route looped south through Midtown and the Texas Medical Center before heading back north. He suspects the system avoids downtown railway crossings.
Other riders have reported similar problems. Hy Luu, a content creator, told Business Insider that his first ride, a 13-mile trip from home to work, took about 80 minutes after the car arrived. The car took about 25 minutes to reach him, and his usual commute in his own Tesla takes about 45 minutes.
Luu said most people would not use the service as it works today, because of the waits and detours.
Even so, McKanna was positive about the service overall, citing reasonable wait times and a large area, and said he expects Tesla to fix the routing.
Tesla did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
Tesla launched its Robotaxi service in Houston and Dallas in April without safety monitors in the cars. The first weekend brought long waits and navigation errors, and in at least one ride a remote operator had to guide a car off a highway.
The company has been scaling up since it put its two-seat Cybercab on public roads in September. Robotaxi operators across the industry are finding that rapid growth brings new problems they have yet to solve.
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