In Dribs and Drabs, we are starting to have a better idea of this Tesla Robotaxi Service will resemble its launch in Austin, Texas, in a few weeks. But this is not enough given what is at stake.
The company considers on June 12 as a possible date to launch its Robotaxi service in Austin, Bloomberg reports – Although this date can change. Tesla has not yet publicly announced as a date, and he did not specify who will be able to access the vehicles.
The news comes as CEO Elon Musk said the company started testing vehicles without security drivers.
“For several days, Tesla has tested autonomous model cars (person in the driver’s headquarters) in the public streets of Austin without incidents”, ” Musk said on x. “One month before the scheduled date. Next month, the factory’s first self-livreation to the customer. ”
But before giving Musk for the milestone too much credit, keep in mind that we always know almost nothing about the functioning of this service. Tesla has never publicly demonstrated that its vehicles can work entirely without driver, without driver of human security driving, on public roads. We saw them behaving within the limits of the Tesla factory, which is an environment completely controlled by the company and far from being as complex as a street in the active city with pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users.
We know that Tesla plans to launch the service with 10 to 20 Model Y vehicles. Are these vehicles significantly different from the YS model that Tesla sells to its customers? It seems very likely, given that Ashok Elluswamy, vice-president of automatic pilot and AI software, said in a recent call on the results they have of “audio inputs” so that they can collect sirens from emergency vehicles, for example.
These vehicles will also be strongly teleoperated, which means that there will be distant operators who will look at vehicles through their integrated cameras, ready to take control if a problem arises. But keep in mind that this comes from a research note published by Morgan Stanley’s analyst Adam Jonas, not from Tesla herself. Jonas also said that the service will only be invited to launch. So, unless you are a Tesla investor, a social media influencer with an important audience or a personal friend close to Elon Musk, do not plan to travel immediately to Austin next month.
Tesla’s approach to her autonomous service is a major gap compared to how Robotaxy companies generally manage these types of launches. Waymo, which should be noted operates the only Robotaxi service accessible to the public in the United States, tests its driver-free vehicles for weeks, sometimes for months, before opening them up to public members. And even then, the company only authorizes specific people, generally from a waiting list, to drive in its vehicles.
Tesla’s approach to its autonomous service is a major gap in the way Robotaxis companies generally manage these types of launches
But before that, Waymo spends months manually driving in a city, by gathering data on the street landscape and the driving habits of other drivers. Sometimes he uses this information to launch a commercial rootaxi service; Other times, these data is simply introduced into the central computer of Waymo to make general improvements to its automated driving software.
Waymo is also relatively transparent about its process. Before launching a Robotaxi service in Phoenix, Arizona, the company invited journalists from dozens of outlets to its test center in Castle, California, allowing them to drive in vehicles on a closed course. Waymo has also published its own security case, published numerous blog articles on its approach to safety and published a handful of studies evaluated by peers which demonstrate how its technology regularly behaves safer than human drivers.
Tesla, on the other hand, said very little about the security of its vehicles beyond the declarations filled with the media threw by its general manager. Even the federal government, of which Musk was recently a quasi-member in the context of Doge, has many questions about the imminent launch. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which operates under the American Department of Transport, recently sent the company to a question damIncluding on the number of vehicles, their ability to operate in poor weather conditions and on which schedule Tesla owners will be able to access the supposed driver -free technology.
A persistent concern for the NHTSA is that Tesla bases its Robotaxi service on its Autonomous Driving Assistance function (FSD). The Tesla first generation driver assistance system, the automatic pilot, was linked to hundreds of non -fatal incidents and 51 deaths reported in October 2024. At least two of these deaths were linked to the FSD. The NHTSA has been investigating these accidents for several years now.
Autonomous technology is built on many things – cameras, software, AI, engineering, probability – but the success of any Robotaxi public service will ultimately come to confidence. Do people trust the company sufficiently built technology to enter a vehicle without anyone on the front seat? Many public notice election have shown Down support for autonomous vehicles over the years and an increase in Pure and simple hostility to technology.
In addition to that, Tesla’s brand problems are concentrated. The company is Clearly in difficulty Under Musk’s yoke and its difficult turn to the right. His online buffoonery, his support for far -right political parties and his fascist gestures with Trump gatherings have Everything turned the Tesla toxic brand. A recent survey to assess the reputation of large companies Classified Tesla 95TH, down compared to the 8th brand the best rated four years ago.
Tesla will always have her fans – many of them fill my box in receipt for the future success of the company as well as personal insults for daring to question Musk’s leadership – but it will take a few response guys to make a successful Robotaxi company. Especially the one we know very little.