Elon Musk talked a big game during his latest earnings call. The Tesla CEO said on Wednesday that his company will launch a paid ride-hailing robotaxi service in Austin, Texas using its own fleet vehicles in June 2025.
Musk has made several high-profile promises about Tesla’s progress toward fully autonomous cars, but many of these claims have not yet come to fruition, leading to criticism. Musk has repeatedly stated that Tesla vehicles would achieve full autonomy—meaning cars that could drive themselves with no human input—by various dates, including as early as 2018.
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He also suggested that Tesla cars would be capable of “roaming the streets” with little or no human supervision by now. However, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system still requires human supervision and is far from reaching the level of true autonomy Musk initially predicted.
The gap between Musk’s predictions and reality can be attributed to several factors, including the immense complexity of autonomous driving technology, which must navigate unpredictable real-world conditions, as well as regulatory and safety challenges. Tesla’s FSD, while advanced in some areas, is still classified as a Level 2 driver assistance system requiring human oversight. Additionally, regulatory bodies in many regions have been slow to approve fully autonomous vehicles due to safety concerns.
Despite these setbacks, Tesla’s innovations in driver assistance and autonomous features remain significant, though the timeline for achieving fully autonomous driving continues to be unclear. Musk’s bold promises have sparked both excitement and skepticism about the future of self-driving cars.
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Reportedly, during an earnings call Musk said there will be no drivers in the cars which will use the yet-to-be-released “unsupervised” version of its Full Self-Driving software. He also said he expects the unsupervised FSD software to be released to owners in California and “many regions of the U.S.” this year. But the idea of owners adding their own cars to the Tesla ride-hail fleet won’t happen until at least next year, Musk said.