After years of teasing a new line of self-driving vehicles, billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk is finally making good on his promise with the rollout of Tesla’s robotaxi service.
When is the robotaxi event?
This Sunday, June 22, Tesla will give a select group of people the chance to ride in its Model Y Robotaxis in Austin, Texas, where the EV maker moved its headquarters from California in 2021.
Tesla did not respond to CBS MoneyWatch’s email seeking information about the launch. However, details shared on social media and past comments from Musk offer some clues as to what it will look like.
Where will the robotaxi event take place?
The pilot will likely involve a small number of cars and rides will take place in a “geofenced area” in Austin. In a CNBC interview in May, Musk suggested there could be around 10 robotaxis in circulation during the pilot in Austin, and said Tesla would scale up the number from there.
According to a note from Wedbush Securities tech analyst Dan Ives, there could be up to 20 Model Y cars circling around Austin on Sunday.
It’s unclear how many people were invited to participate in the pilot, although it appears “Early Access” invites went primarily to Tesla investors and enthusiasts. In a copy of the invitation shared on social media, it says these riders will be “among the first to use our new Robotaxi App” and that they will be able to provide “valuable feedback.”
Those invited to Austin’s pilot can hail the self-driving cars via the Robotaxi App and go anywhere except the airport from 6 a.m. to midnight on Sunday, the invitation says.
What has Elon Musk said about robotaxis?
Musk previewed the launch in January during an earnings call, saying the cars will be “in the wild with no one in them, in June in Austin.” A video posted by the company that same month offers a glimpse of the interiors and exteriors of Tesla’s autonomous vehicles.
The robotaxi event comes just weeks after Musk stepped back from the Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump administration’s cost-cutting effort. With Tesla’s sales tumbling amid widespread protests against his government work, some Tesla investors had asked him to refocus on the EV carmaker.
In an X post from earlier this month, Musk teased the June 22 launch date and said the first driverless trip “from factory end of line all the way to a customer house” is set to take place on June 28.
From there, he has said he expects services to scale rapidly. It’s likely that the Tesla robotaxi could be rolled out in 25 U.S. cities over the next year, according to Ives.
Are there safety concerns about robotaxis?
Autonomous vehicles have drawn scrutiny from the government officials and independent groups like the Dawn Project, a computer safety advocacy company, which argues that Tesla’s self-driving technology puts children in harm’s way.
Tesla is also under the microscope of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which launched an investigation in October after four vehicles with Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” system were involved in crashes.
In May, the agency’s investigatory arm shifted its focus to the impending pilot program in Austin, saying in a letter that it wants information from Tesla on how it plans to evaluate its fleet of robotaxis for use on public roads.
These concerns seems to have caught the attention of Musk, who earlier this month wrote, “We are being super paranoid about safety” in a social media post discussing the rollout.
On Wednesday, Democratic lawmakers from Texas signed a letter asking Tesla to delay its launch until September 1, when a new law regulating the safety of autonomous vehicles takes effect. Under the laws new framework, commercial vehicles would be required to get authorization for the Department of Motor Vehicles “before operating on public streets without a human driver.”
It’s unlikely that will hobble this weekend’s launch, which appears to be moving ahead, albeit with certain safety provisions built in. According to the invite shared on social media, the robotaxis in Austin pilot will have a “Tesla Safety Monitor” in the front right passenger seat. Remote monitors will also be keeping track of the rides, according to CNBC.
How important are robotaxis for Tesla?
The rollout of the robotaxi service, if successful, could help boost the company’s fortunes after it faced intense backlash over Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration’s DOGE, noted Wedbush’s Ives.
Tesla’s first-quarter results fell short of expectations, with its profit tumbling 71% and its sales sliding 9% during the three-month period. While its stock has regained some lost ground since Musk said he would return his focus to Tesla, it’s still 33% below its December peak of about $480 per share.
The robotaxi rollout could help Tesla reach a $2 trillion market cap by the end of 2026, or double its current valuation, according to Ives.
“The golden era of autonomous for Tesla officially kicks off on Sunday in Austin,” Ives wrote in a research report. “We view this autonomous chapter as one of the most important for Musk and Tesla.”
In ramping up robotaxi service, Tesla is hoping to slingshot past Waymo, another autonomous car service that operates in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin, according to its website. Last week, Waymo applied for a permit to test its vehicles in New York City.
“I don’t really think about competitors. I just think about making the product as perfect as possible,” Musk has said of his robotaxi venture.
Either way, Tesla will have some catching up to do. Waymo currently gets 250,000 paid trips each week for its driverless taxis service.
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
Mary Cunningham is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch. Before joining the business and finance vertical, she worked at “60 Minutes,” CBSNews.com and CBS News 24/7 as part of the CBS News Associate Program.
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