At a time when its profits took a nosedive for the first quarter of the year, EV maker Tesla is gearing up to launch its robotaxi network in Austin, Texas, with CEO Elon Musk announcing a tentative start date of June 22. Musk announced this development in a post on social media platform X. Musk also revealed plans for June 28, his birthday, when Tesla aims to autonomously deliver a vehicle directly from the factory to a customer’s home.
“We are being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift. First Tesla that drives itself from factory end of line all the way to a customer house is June 28,” read his post. Despite the widespread excitement generated by the autonomous vehicle sightings, Tesla plans a measured and cautious rollout for its robotaxi service, as is evident by Musk’s “super paranoid” remark. Musk indicated that the launch would commence with a limited fleet, potentially ten to twenty vehicles, before gradually scaling up.
Anticipation for the robotaxi launch intensified this week following the circulation of videos on X showing Tesla Model Y vehicles operating autonomously in Austin. One particular video, shared by Tesla executives including Musk, depicted a black Model Y, distinctively marked with “robotaxi” on its front door, executing a turn off South Congress Avenue in a bustling tourist area, with no visible driver. Ashok Elluswamy, head of Tesla’s Autopilot teams and recently appointed to oversee the Optimus humanoid robot program, also disseminated the footage, drawing significant attention to the progress.
These recent visual proofs follow earlier reports from news outlets, including Bloomberg, which had previously suggested a June 12 start date for the robotaxi network. For weeks, Tesla has been conducting extensive testing of self-driving Model Y SUVs intended for the initial phase of the operation, with vehicles bearing manufacturer plates and often accompanied by a safety driver observed across various Austin neighborhoods. Market response to Musk’s concrete announcement was swift – Tesla shares advanced in early stock market trading on Wednesday, indicating investor enthusiasm for the clarified timeline. Musk’s direct communication on X late Tuesday night ended weeks of speculation regarding the service’s official commencement.
The robotaxi fleet is expected to leverage an “unsupervised” version of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software. Musk specified that the vehicle featured in the recent viral video was running on a newly released software iteration, hinting at continuous advancements in their autonomous driving stack. He further elaborated that these vehicles are “unmodified Tesla cars coming straight from the factory,” suggesting that every new Tesla produced inherently possesses the hardware capabilities for unsupervised self-driving. The Austin Transportation and Public Works website currently lists Tesla as an “autonomous vehicle” (AV) operator in the city, confirming its engagement in the space. However, as of June 11, Tesla remains in the “testing” phase of its autonomous driving operations in Austin, whereas Google’s autonomous unit, Waymo, is already officially listed in the “deployment” phase.
Tesla’s initial robotaxi deployment is set to launch within limited, pre-determined geographical boundaries in Austin. Vehicles equipped with FSD software will be under close scrutiny, with some monitoring conducted remotely. Musk alluded to even more tech, noting, “We have a more advanced model in alpha stage that has ~4X the params, but still requires a lot of polishing. That’s probably ready for deploy in a few months.”
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