Tesla Robotaxis Hit the Road

Tesla hit a long-promised milestone when it finally launched its Robotaxi service of driverless cabs in Austin, Texas on June 22, albeit at a very small scale. A select group of invitees could book one at a flat rate of US$ 4.20. While the taxi itself was self-driving, a human safety monitor sat at the front in case of an unexpected emergency. The taxis were all Tesla Model Y cars. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, posted on X, ‘ Culmination of a decade of hard work. Both the AI chip and software teams were built from scratch within Tesla.’ However, Tesla is not exactly a pioneer on this front. Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, already has 1500 self-driving taxis in a number of American cities. Tesla’s promise is of scalability. It uses a cheaper camera-based technology. Also, they claim that even private owners of their self-driving cars can turn them into taxis when not using them through a dedicated app. The launch was promised by Musk years earlier with huge rollout numbers but the deadlines had been missed. It is a testament to Musk’s personal brand that just a small number of around 20 operating taxis  can create such buzz. He is also promising the production of a vast fleet through an upcoming Cybercab model.

AIAlphabetAustinautonomous vehiclesCybercabdriverlessElon MuskJune 22Model YRobotaxiself-drivingTeslaTexasWaymo