Musk Vows Robotaxis to Hit Austin Roads Next Month

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the company will have robotaxis on the streets of Austin, Texas, by the end of June.

In an interview on Tuesday at the company’s headquarters in Austin, Musk said Tesla aims to bring its robotaxis to Los Angeles and San Francisco following the planned Austin debut.
Musk said a Tesla robotaxi service will start with about 10 vehicles in Austin, and rapidly expand to thousands of vehicles should the launch go well with no incidents.

Since 2016, Musk has been promising Tesla investors, customers and fans that the company is about a year away from delivering a self-driving car that’s capable of transporting passengers safely without human interventions, or a human at the steering wheel.

However, Tesla does not yet offer a vehicle safe to use without human supervision.

“It’s prudent for us to start with a small number, confirm that things are going well and then scale it up,” Musk said.

To start, Tesla has said its robotaxis will be Model Y vehicles equipped with a forthcoming version of FSD, or full self-driving, known as FSD Unsupervised.

Musk said Tesla “will geofence” its robotaxis in Austin to start, meaning the company will limit where those Model Y vehicles can drive. But there won’t be a human safety driver in the cars, Musk promised.

Tesla employees will be remotely monitoring the fleet, he said.

TSLA opened Wednesday trading up 59 cents to $344.44.