Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday that his company will launch a paid ride-hailing robotaxi service in Austin, Texas this coming June, the latest in a long line of sky-high promises he has yet to meet about autonomy.
Musk was unsurprisingly light on details. He said that there will be no people in the cars, which will use the yet-to-be-released “unsupervised” version of its Full Self-Driving software.
Musk first teased the idea of starting up a paid self-driving service back in October when Tesla revealed its purpose-built Cybercab prototype, which has no steering wheel or pedals. He said at the time that Tesla was looking to launch an early version of the ride-hailing service in Texas and California in 2025 using Model Y SUVs and Model 3 sedans.
Bloomberg News recently reported that Tesla was in talks with Austin city officials to make that happen.
Musk said Wednesday that Tesla is “putting our toe in the water gently at first, just to make sure everything’s cool,” but didn’t offer any further detail about what that means. Tesla has been testing the performance of unsupervised FSD software on its factory grounds in Texas, he said — a location that has far less complexity than a real-world environment.
“Then, you know, put a few more toes in the water, then put a foot in the water, with safety of the general public and those in the car as a top priority,” he said.
This story is developing…
Sean O’Kane is a reporter who has spent a decade covering the rapidly-evolving business and technology of the transportation industry, including Tesla and the many startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, he was a reporter at Bloomberg News where he helped break stories about some of the most notorious EV SPAC flops. He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted many short- and long-form videos, performed product and editorial photography, and once nearly passed out in a Red Bull Air Race plane.
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Source: Techcrunch
