Tesla launched its first driver -free taxi service in Austin (Texas) on Sunday with some vehicles, in a definite sector and with selected customers. Customers, who have received Tesla invitations, shared filmed videos from the back of the vehicles: there are no human units and a supervisor used by the manufacturer is sitting in the passenger seat. “Oh my God, she is there,” says the owner of the @TESLACONOMICS account when he saw the car arrive without anyone driving.
“I really like this trip, this is the level of confidence of the car I appreciate, we hear in another video broadcast live by user Herbert Ngo.” It is a historical moment (…). This is the best trip we can dream with. “
The Chief of Tesla, Elon Musk, has again published several of these videos about X, including that of a client that praises driving flexibility. Then he sent “great congratulations” to the teams, seeing the “culminating point of ten years of hard work.” He had announced a few hours before in his social network X that the service would cost the first customers $ 4.20 per trip.
An exponential progression in the coming months
This highly anticipated launch is only by invitation, through an ad hoc application and in a demarcated area. The manufacturer plays its credibility while he is several years behind the Waymo autonomous taxi from Google (Alphabet), which has been circulating since 2021 in several US cities. According to Dan IVES, Wedbush analyst, artificial autonomy and intelligence represent a “golden egg chicken” for Tesla, which can increase its valuation of “at least $ 1,000 billion.”
Meanwhile, the manufacturer’s sales suffer from Chinese competition, the limited renewal of its rank and the positions of Elon Musk, support for governments very well in Europe and Ally very invested with the president of the United States, Donald Trump, before a resounding anger. “We want to be very cautious with the first introduction (by Tesla) of autonomous driving without supervision,” Elon Musk said on May 20 in CNBC, adding that only a dozen robotaxis was going to operate the first week, before an exponential progression “according to how things go.”
“We will probably be a thousand in a few months and then, we spread in other cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Antonio,” several hundred thousand at the end of next year. “
Considers that Tesla owners who pay the totally autonomous driving option (FSD), currently $ 99 per month, after $ 8,000 for purchase, could integrate their vehicle into the Robotaxi service when they do not use it.
While waiting Cibercab
The manufacturer shared on Sunday a link to a page that details the terms of use of the service, “currently only available by invitation”: “Robotaxi arrives. The materials available in their sector are ensured,” is safe. Customers are going up at Tesla Model Y. While they wait for Cybercab, whose production must begin in 2026. Presented in October, this electricity -free electric machine lacks steering wheel and pedals. Chaim Siegel, an advisors of Elazar, was skeptical about the real degree of autonomy of the vehicle, even suggesting that robotaxis would be “initially remotely controlled.”
Texas is a privileged experimental field for taxi without driver thanks to flexible regulation. The Municipality of Austin is aware, according to its website, of six autonomous vehicles operators in its streets: Adm (Volkswagen), Avride, Tesla and Zoox (Amazon) in Experimentation, Motional (Hyundai) in the mapping and Waymo phase in the deployment.
But a law hardens operating conditions as of September 1, which requires in particular prior authorization and an interaction plan with emergency services. Several Texan Democratic parliamentarians had asked Tesla on Wednesday to begin after September 1, or show that he respects this new regulation.
Source: BFM TV
