Tesla Robotaxi is getting more shade thrown on it by skeptics from all corners of the industry. Recently, it received some criticism from ex-Waymo CEO John Krafcik, who led the currently sits on the board of Tesla rival Rivian.

Robotaxi is Tesla’s self-driving ride-hailing service that operates in both Austin, Texas, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

In Austin, it launched on June 22, and it was the first city where Tesla launched driverless rides to a select group of invited guests. That group, as well as the geofence in Austin, has expanded several times in the roughly two months since its launch.

In the Bay, Tesla is not legally allowed to call the platform “Robotaxi,” so it refers to it as its ride-hailing service. This was confirmed by CEO Elon Musk.

However, Krafcik, who was with Waymo for about seven years, is skeptical of the Robotaxi fleet, basically calling it less than impressive and stating that it is a lot like Uber in San Francisco.

In an interview with Business Insider, Krafcik revealed his true thoughts about Tesla’s efforts:

“If they were striving to re-create today’s Bay Area Uber experience, looks like they’ve absolutely nailed it.”

He went on to say that the company’s decision to keep Safety Monitors in the vehicle for the time being makes the vehicle not a Robotaxi. In Austin, there is not a Safety Monitor in the driver’s seat, only in the front passenger’s seat.

In the Bay Area, there is a Safety Monitor in the driver’s seat, which is a regulatory requirement with the platform currently.

Krafcik continued:

“Please let me know when Tesla launches a robotaxi — I’m still waiting. It’s (rather obviously) not a robotaxi if there’s an employee inside the car.”

The presence of a Safety Monitor is only a measure of precaution currently, and Tesla has said that it is purely a move to ensure riders are kept out of danger.

Musk said recently that Tesla is being “paranoid” over safety, and for good reason. Any instance of an accident could set Tesla, or any self-driving program for that matter, back years.

Unfortunately, Krafcik said he has no desire to try Robotaxi, so it won’t get a fair shot at changing his mind.

The Federal Aviation Administration has closed its review of SpaceX’s Starship Flight 9 mishap, clearing the way for the next launch attempt as soon as August 24. 

Flight 9 ended with the loss of both the Super Heavy booster and the upper stage, but regulators accepted SpaceX’s findings that a fuel component failure was the root cause. No public safety concerns were reported from the incident.

Starship recovery lessons

SpaceX noted that Flight 9 marked the first reuse of a Super Heavy booster. Unlike prior attempts, the company did not try a tower “chopsticks” recovery, opting instead for an offshore return that ended in a destructive breakup. The upper stage was also lost over the Indian Ocean. 

As per the FAA in its statement, “There are no reports of public injury or damage to public property. The FAA oversaw and accepted the findings of the SpaceX-led investigation. The final mishap report cites the probable root cause for the loss of the Starship vehicle as a failure of a fuel component. SpaceX identified corrective actions to prevent a reoccurrence of the event.”

SpaceX also highlighted that Flight 9’s debris did not harm any wildlife. “SpaceX works with an experienced global response provider to retrieve any debris that may wash up in South Texas and/or Mexico as a result of Starship flight test operations. During the survey of the expected debris field from the booster, there was no evidence of any floating or deceased marine life that would signal booster debris impact harmed animals in the vicinity,” the private space company noted.

Expanding test objectives

To mitigate risks, SpaceX plans to adjust return angles for future flights and conduct additional landing burn tests on Flight 10. SpaceX will attempt a Gulf splashdown for Flight 10 once more, instead of a tower capture, according to a report from the Boston Herald.

The upcoming Starship Flight 10, which will be launching from Starbase in Texas, will also mark SpaceX’s attempt to perform its first payload deployment and an in-space Raptor relight. Despite recent setbacks, which include the last three flights ending with the upper stage experiencing a rapid unscheduled disassembly (RUD), Starship remains central to NASA’s Artemis program, with a variant tapped as the human landing system for Artemis III, the first since the Apollo program. 

Standing more than 400 feet tall and generating 16 million pounds of thrust, Starship remains the most powerful rocket flown, though it has yet to complete an orbital mission. The FAA has expanded SpaceX’s license to allow up to 25 Starship flights annually from Texas.

A Tesla VP has confirmed that the electric vehicle maker will be rolling out key improvements for the Cybertruck’s Full Self-Driving with the release for V14. The update was shared in a post on social media platform X.

The Cybertruck’s FSD

While FSD has been released for the Cybertruck, the all-electric pickup truck is still lacking a number of key features that are currently available in the company’s other vehicles like the Model Y, which is substantially more affordable. These include functions like Actually Smart Summon (ASS), which is very convenient for owners. Key accessories that were initially announced for the Cybertruck, such as the Range Extender, have been canceled as well. 

It was then no surprise that Cybertruck owners have taken to social media platforms like X to express their disdain at their vehicles’ missing features. Among these owners was @cybrtrkguy, who stated that the long list of missing Cybertruck features gives the impression that the all-electric pickup truck is just an afterthought at the electric vehicle maker.

Tesla’s response

Interestingly enough, Tesla VP, IT/AI-Infra, Apps, Infosec and Vehicle Service Operations Raj Jegannathan responded to the Cybertruck owner’s post, stating that improvements for the all-electric pickup truck are coming soon. This response was mostly received positively, though some X users joked that Tesla’s “coming soon” announcements tend to become quite longer than expected. 

Seemingly to provide more context, the Tesla VP clarified that the upcoming FSD V14 update will include improvements for the Cybertruck’s Full Self-Driving system. “V14 includes improvements for CT on FSD,” Jegannathan wrote. 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hinted at FSD V14’s improvements. In a post on X, Musk stated that “the FSD release in about 6 weeks will be a dramatic gain with a 10X higher parameter count and many other improvements. It’s going through training & testing now. Once we confirm real-world safety of FSD 14, which we think will be amazing, the car will nag you much less.”