Musk admits Tesla robotaxis have a cat problem
What's the story
Elon Musk has admitted that Tesla's robotaxi service is struggling with a "cat problem." The issue, which has been a challenge highlighting long-standing criticisms of the company's camera-only autonomous driving system, is more pronounced at night. Musk said the vehicles have difficulty detecting small animals in low-light conditions, particularly "gray kittens on gray tarmac."
Service expansion
Tesla extends robotaxi's operating hours
Despite the challenges, Tesla has decided to extend its Austin robotaxi pilot's operating hours by an hour.
The move will push the service's nighttime operations from 10:00pm to 11:00pm.
However, this extension still makes it less available than its original launch in June 2025 when it operated from 6:00am to midnight.
Technical challenge
Musk's comments on optical cameras
Musk's comments shed light on a major limitation of optical cameras, which are passive sensors that rely on ambient light and contrast to detect objects.
A low-contrast object like a gray animal on dark asphalt reflects very little light and offers minimal distinguishing visual information.
This is where active sensors such as lidar and radar come in handy, as they don't depend on ambient lighting for detection.
Alternative approach
Waymo uses a multi-sensor suite
Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Google-parent Alphabet, uses a multi-sensor suite of cameras, lidar, and radar to operate 24/7 across thousands of vehicles.
In August this year, Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov showed off this capability by releasing footage of children and dogs running across an unlit street.
While optical cameras struggled with visibility in the dark, the lidar feed tracked these subjects clearly.
Safety concerns
Tesla sticks to vision-only strategy
Despite the challenges with its camera-only system, Tesla has stuck to a vision-only strategy under Musk's leadership.
The company removed radar units from production vehicles in 2021, discontinued ultrasonic sensors in 2022, and avoided lidar altogether.
However, safety regulators are now looking into this approach. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating 3.2 million Tesla vehicles over FSD collisions in low-visibility environments.