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Elon Musk’s latest business venture just rolled out an updated service map that has all of social media convinced he’s trolling his critics with a juvenile image.
Over the weekend, Musk’s electric car company Tesla unveiled the expanded area where Robotaxi will be operating in Austin, Texas.
Robotaxi launched in June in a small, geofenced portion of the city, meaning the self-driving cars could not operate anywhere else.
It’s not Robotaxi’s expansion that’s raising eyebrows, but the oddly shaped coverage zone, which many on social media insist resembles a phallus.
Musk himself posted an enlarged image of the new Robotaxi map on X Monday morning with no comment.
While Tesla CEO wouldn’t say this phallic-shaped map was done intentionally as a joke, his followers on X quickly pounced on the alleged prank.
‘That’s one way to penetrate the market,’ one person wrote on X.
‘Autonomous driving is hard. Rock hard,’ another X user commented.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted a picture of a phallic-shaped map on X Monday. It also happened to be the updated zone for his company’s new Robotaxi program in Austin, Texas

Tesla rolled out its Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas on June 22 in a small portion of the city which charged riders a flat rate of $4.20 for the driverless taxi experience
Despite some online finding the new map comical, some argued Tesla was attempting to draw their company logo on the Austin map, while plenty of Musk’s critics simply slammed the update as a childish stunt.
‘Juvenile! Brother [you’re] better than this. Not every thought needs to be shared,’ one X user posted Monday.
‘Yeah, another reason I’ll never buy one of your cars. Or pay for X. Or Starlink. Or anything else you’re involved with,’ another critic wrote.
Tesla has come under almost constant attack since Musk briefly joined the Trump Administration, leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) until May 28.
Vandalism at Tesla dealerships, slumping sales over Musk’s ties to DOGE, and market jitters from his feud with President Donald Trump have reportedly wiped more than $270 billion off Tesla’s value this year.
Robotaxi’s new map isn’t the first eyebrow-raising move Musk has made with the new autonomous service.
Musk charged passengers a flat fee of $4.20, no matter how far the ride was or how long it took, during the self-driving taxi’s test run.
Many people on social media said the fare was a reference to the CEO’s support for marijuana use.
During a September 2018 appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Musk smoked marijuana on camera after Rogan offered him a joint.

Musk and the Tesla team celebrated the June 22 launch as a ‘successful’ test despite a number of driving errors which were recorded by passengers

In July, Musk revealed the new coverage zone for Austin’s Robotaxi program, adding a long shaft-like region to the existing taxi zone created in June
During the 2018 interview, Musk noted he was ‘not a regular smoker of weed,’ but the act sparked significant media backlash and caused Tesla’s stock price to drop by nine percent at the time – costing another $1.4 billion in market value.
Last month, Robotaxi got off to a rocky start, as multiple riders reported issues with the driverless taxis.
Social media influencers recording their trips filmed the cars driving on the wrong side of the road, stopping in busy intersections to let passengers out, and braking for no reason when passing the police.
Tesla did not respond to Daily Mail’s request for comment on these issues and is already moving forward plans to expand into more cities.
Musk confirmed in a July 9 post on X that Tesla would be debuting Robotaxi in San Francisco in August or September.
‘Waiting on regulatory approvals, but probably in a month or two,’ Musk wrote, speaking about expanding the service to the Bay Area.
However, the National Highway Transit Safety Administration (NHTSA) said in a statement that the agency was looking into the traffic incidents during Robotaxi’s debut in Texas.
The agency has not released an update into that investigation since it began.
Tesla reportedly told NHTSA that its answers regarding any issues with the Robotaxi should be kept secret because it qualifies as confidential business information, according to Reuters.
If Robotaxi does eventually move into San Francisco, it’ll go into direct competition with the current leader in self-driving taxis Waymo.
Waymo One was created by Alphabet Inc, the parent company of Google, which is based in California. It’s being operating in multiple cities since 2018.