Tesla CEO Elon Musk Announces Paid Robotaxi Service Launch in Austin, Texas

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced Wednesday that his company will launch a paid ride-hailing robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, using its own fleet vehicles this coming June. This is the latest in a long line of ambitious promises he has yet to meet about autonomy.

Musk was light on details during an earnings call. He stated that there will be no drivers in the cars, which will utilize the yet-to-be-released “unsupervised” version of its Full Self-Driving software. He also mentioned that he expects the unsupervised FSD software to be released to owners in California and “many regions of the U.S.” this year. However, the idea of owners adding their own cars to the Tesla ride-hail fleet won’t happen until at least next year, Musk said.

The CEO then referred to 2025 as “maybe the most important year in Tesla’s history.”

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 stated 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. The city’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk stated 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.

Musk stated that Tesla is “looking for a safety level that is significantly above the average human driver,” but did not specify how Tesla is making that measurement.

The company has long published a so-called “vehicle safety report” on its website that shares the number of miles traveled between crashes on Autopilot, its less capable driver assistance software. The company compares that number to an overall government crash figure for human drivers. However, there are several problems with this comparison. Much of Autopilot driving happens on highways and not on surface streets. Tesla also does not offer any detail about the conditions or severity of these crashes.

This story has been updated with more details from the earnings call.