According to automotive research firm AMCI Testing, the US automaker is Tesla still a long way from fully autonomous robotaxi operations. The company came to this conclusion after testing Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software. In a statement released on Tuesday, AMCI called the software “suspicious” and stressed that it still needs significant improvements before safe robotaxi operations are possible.
In the text, the drivers had to intervene more than 75 times during a test drive of around 1,000 miles (approx. 1,610 km) – on average about every 21 kilometers. David Stokols, CEO of AMCI Testing’s parent company AMCI Global, said: “While it may be positive in some cases, you simply cannot reliably rely on the accuracy or reasoning behind the software’s responses.”
AMCI Testing’s assessment was based solely on Tesla’s new software iterations 12.5.1 and 12.5.3, with testing conducted in four different driving environments: city streets, two-lane country roads, mountain roads and highways.
Among other things, the tests showed that the more kilometers driven with FSD activated, the greater the likelihood of these types of errors. “As you will see in the videos, the most critical moments of FSD miscalculation are split-second events that even professional drivers with a testing mentality must pay attention to detect,” said Guy Mangiamele, Head of AMCI Testing.
Tesla recently postponed the launch of its self-driving taxi to October 10th. The head of the car manufacturer, Elon Musk (53), originally wanted to introduce the self-driving taxi on August 8th, according to one of his posts on X. Reuters had previously reported that, according to insiders, the company is abandoning plans for a cheap mass-market electric car to focus on autonomous driving and robotaxi.