Tesla chief Elon Musk has said that the automaker is aiming to launch its robotaxi service on June 22, in Austin, Texas.
“Tentatively, June 22,” Musk said in a post on X on Tuesday, adding: “We are being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift.”
But take note, the vehicle used for the upcoming robotaxi service won’t be the futuristic Cybercab — sans steering wheel and pedals — that Musk unveiled at Tesla’s flashy We, Robot event in October last year. Instead, the company will deploy regular Model Y vehicles using a version of the automaker’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology. A team will monitor the fleet remotely, checking for anomalies as the cars make their way around the streets of Austin.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Tesla boss shared a video clip taken in the Texas city that showed a Model Y vehicle being tested without a human safety driver behind the wheel. Lettering on the side of the car reads: “Robotaxi.” Electrek reported that the video shows a second Tesla vehicle right behind the driverless car, “likely with a remote teleoperator ready to take control or activate a kill switch.”
Tesla has only been operating its cars without a safety driver since the end of May, raising concerns among some about a lack of testing time before taking paying passengers later this month … if Tesla hits its target date, that is.
According to comments made by Musk in a recent interview with CNBC, Tesla will begin its robotaxi service with between 10 and 20 vehicles. The company has yet to reveal how folks interested in jumping inside a Tesla robotaxi will be able to do so.
During Tesla’s proposal stage toward the end of last year, the company worked with the authorities in Austin to establish safety regulations prior to testing. Preparation included training the city’s first responders on how to interact with vehicles that may be empty when they show up.
When Tesla’s robotaxis hit the streets of Austin, they could find themselves driving alongside other autonomous vehicles operated by Alphabet-owned Waymo and Amazon-owned Zoox. Both have been testing their driverless cars on the city’s roads for some time, with Waymo now offering rides to paying customers.
The robotaxi market is a highly competitive one, with a number of prominent players — Cruise and Argo AI among them — being forced to drop out due to various pressures. With that in mind, Tesla is keen to get off to a good start so that it can build out its service in a timely fashion. Safety will be key. One slip-up and the project could face serious delays.
