A Tesla robotaxi was spotted driving on public roads in Austin without anyone in the driver’s seat or a safety monitor in the passenger seat. Elon Musk has confirmed that robotaxi testing has officially commenced in a step forward for the company’s autonomy ambitions.
Tesla CEO Musk confirmed this via X. “Testing is underway with no occupant in the car,” he said.
Musk said in a video call at an xAI “hackathon” event last week that Tesla would remove human safety monitors from its robotaxi cars by the end of the year, according to Teslarati, a news site focused on Musk-run companies. “There will be Tesla robotaxis operating in Austin with no one in them, not even anyone in the passenger seat, in about three weeks,” Musk said, the outlet reported.
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Shares of the company rose as much as 4.9%, hitting $481.37, their highest in nearly a year. The stock had hit a record high of $488.54 on Dec. 18 last year on hopes that the Trump administration would ease regulatory hurdles for self-driving cars.
“The news Tesla is testing robotaxis without the safety monitors is in line with our expectations that the company is making progress in its testing, in line with management’s statements during the third quarter earnings call,” said Seth Goldstein, senior equity analyst at Morningstar. “The market is cheering the progress, sending shares higher today.”
However, Tesla’s move has also sparked serious safety concerns, since the company has, to date, never released comprehensive, verifiable data proving that its FSD system is safer than a human driver. There is anecdotal evidence, curated video clips, and high-level statistics about “miles driven,” but not the granular disengagement data that competitors like Waymo provide to regulators and the public.
Data based on incident reports submitted to the NHTSA under their Standing General Order regarding ADS and ADAS systems, paints a worrying picture. The data pointed to Tesla’s robotaxi pilot in Austin having a crash every 62,000 miles, significantly higher than the human average, despite a safety monitor inside the car that should have prevented further crashes.
Tesla has long been touting its self-driving cars and robotaxi services, though the company has faced numerous setbacks. Alphabet unit Waymo leads with more than 2,500 commercial robotaxis across major U.S. cities, as of November. CNBC reported last week that Waymo has been operating about 450,000 paid rides per week.