On Wednesday, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk announced that the company is set to introduce a paid robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, utilizing its own fleet vehicles starting this June. This marks yet another ambitious claim from Musk regarding the future of autonomy, a promise that he has not yet fulfilled.
In typical fashion, Musk provided limited information during the earnings call. He confirmed that the robotaxis would be devoid of human drivers and would utilize the forthcoming “unsupervised” version of their Full Self-Driving (FSD) software. Musk also expressed optimism about releasing the unsupervised FSD software to vehicle owners in California and various regions across the U.S. later this year. However, he indicated that allowing owners to contribute their own vehicles to the Tesla ride-hailing fleet would not take place until at least next year.
Musk suggested that 2025 might be “the most significant year in Tesla’s history.”
The concept of a paid self-driving service was first hinted at by Musk in October when Tesla unveiled its specialized Cybercab prototype, designed without a steering wheel and pedals. At that time, he mentioned plans to launch an early iteration of the ride-hailing service in Texas and California by 2025, initially using Model Y SUVs and Model 3 sedans.
According to a recent report from Bloomberg News, Tesla has been in discussions with officials in Austin to facilitate this initiative. The city’s press office did not promptly respond to a request for comments.
During the call, Musk noted that Tesla is “gently putting our toe in the water at first, just to ensure everything’s fine,” although he did not elaborate on what this entails. He indicated that Tesla is currently evaluating the performance of the unsupervised FSD software on the company’s factory grounds in Texas, an environment that is significantly simpler than that of real-world traffic conditions.
“Then, you know, we’ll gradually put more toes in the water, and then fully immerse, keeping the safety of the general public and passengers as our top priority,” he expressed.
Musk stated that Tesla aims for a safety standard that is markedly superior to that of the average human driver, though he did not clarify how this benchmark is being assessed.
Tesla has consistently published a “vehicle safety report” on its website, detailing the miles driven between incidents while using Autopilot, its less advanced driver assistance program. This statistic is then compared to an overall government crash rate for human operators. However, there are several issues with this comparison, as much of the Autopilot operation occurs on highways rather than city streets. Moreover, Tesla does not provide comprehensive details regarding the circumstances or severity of these crashes.
This article has been updated with additional details from the earnings call.
Compiled by Techarena.au.
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