Tesla held the first rides of its autonomous “robotaxi” on Sunday in a rather modest launch. Tesla investors and social media investors took the first trip in the self-driving vehicle, though with a human observer in the passenger seat. CEO Elon Musk said the company was “super paranoid” about safety ahead of the launch. This is a long-awaited launch, with Musk having first pitched the idea over ten years ago.
This robotaxi service is currently not available to the general public, nor is it completely “unsupervised” as Musk earlier stated. The vehicles will include Tesla-employed “safety monitors” in the front passenger seat who can react to a dangerous situation by hitting a kill switch.
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While other autonomous vehicle manufacturers also have safety monitors in their testing phase, Tesla is unique in deploying them during commercial service. The rides are also limited to a geofenced area of the city that has been thoroughly mapped by the company. In some cases, Tesla is also using chase cars and remote drivers as backup.
The limited trial includes 10-20 Model Y vehicles with “robotaxi” branding on the side. The fully autonomous Cybercab that was first revealed last year won’t be available until 2026 at the earliest. The service currently only operates in a small, relatively safe part of Austin from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. local time, avoiding bad weather, highways, airports, and complex intersections.
The robotaxi launch got off to a slow start, with several invitees receiving the invite late. Several invitees livestreamed themselves summoning their first cars, interacting with the UI, and then arriving at their destination. Several videos lasted hours, as the invitees would conclude a trip and then hail another car immediately after. One tester, Bearded Tesla Guy, described the app’s interface as “basically Uber,” the Washington Post reported.
Throughout the trips, the robotaxis encountered several normal situations like U-turns, speed bumps, pedestrians, construction, and more. The vehicles maintained speeds of about 40 mph or slower. Most users described the ride as “smooth,” “great,” and “normal.” However, one tester said they got the robotaxi to “mess up” in a way that required assistance from a remote operator. The launch was not without its issues — a reddit user pointed out driving issues in a video uploaded to the Tesla Daily YouTube channel.
Austin was chosen as the initial launch site, because Texas has a comparatively relaxed regulatory environment for autonomous vehicles.
Meanwhile, Alphabet-owned Waymo is operating more than 1,500 driverless vehicles in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin, and has plans to expand to Atlanta, Miami, and Washington, D.C., in the near future.
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The robotaxi rollout has come during trying times for Tesla. Earlier, Musk had courted controversy with his role in the Trump administration, leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which drastically slashed government spending and downsized employee headcount. While investors had initially hoped Musk’s ties to the White House could help boost Tesla — leading to a rise in the value of Tesla shares — his controversial role later gave way to protests, and a drop in shares.
Tesla shares further dropped following a public feud with Trump, which had the president threatening to pull government contracts for CEO Musk’s companies. The move dropped the EV maker $152 billion in value, the biggest hit to its market cap ever, putting it below the $1 trillion benchmark and settling at $916 billion earlier this month.