Tesla robotaxis will be on Austin roads this June, says Elon Musk

AUSTIN, Texas - Austinites can still expect to see Tesla's robotaxis driving alongside them come next month, says Elon Musk.

Musk dropped the news in an interview Tuesday with CNBC at Tesla's headquarters in Austin.

Tesla robotaxis

What we know:

Musk outlined the plan for the robotaxi service, saying it will start by the end of June with about 10 vehicles in Austin, then expand to thousands of vehicles should that launch go well with no incidents.

CNBC reports that Tesla has said the robotaxis will be Model Y vehicles equipped with "a forthcoming version of FSD (full self-driving) known as FSD Unsupervised.

An FSD Supervised ride-hailing service has been available for an "early set of employees" in Austin and San Francisco since April.

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The cars will be geo-fenced to Austin to start, but will operate without a human safety driver, says Musk. Instead, Tesla employees will be remotely monitoring the fleet.

What's next:

Musk said in the interview that the company aims to take its robotaxis to Los Angeles and San Francisco after Austin.

The competition

Big picture view:

Tesla is not the first company to bring robotaxi services to Austin.

Currently, Waymo operates through Uber and also offers Waymo One, a public fully autonomous ride-hailing service that operates 24/7 with no human driver in the front seat.

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Zoox, a subsidiary of Amazon, currently operates in Las Vegas with plans to expand to Austin, Miami and San Francisco. Zoox started testing its fleet in Austin last summer.

Cruise, which was owned by General Motors, suspended their driverless operations in 2023 after reports of their autonomous cars struggling in traffic and even running over a pedestrian in California. That suspension later became permanent when the company announced it would not be relaunching the service after GM announced its full acquisition.

NHTSA questions Tesla on ‘Robotaxi’ safety

Dig deeper:

Tesla's plan has prompted a U.S. agency to ask the company a list of safety questions.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) made their letter to Tesla public on May 12. 

The letter formally asks the company to address numerous concerns with automated driving specifications for the automated vehicles, including those involving interactions with pedestrians and adjustments to changing weather conditions. 

The letter says Tesla may be fined up to $27,874 per day if the agency does not receive a prompt response, with a maximum fine of $139,356,994.

The NHTSA says a response is due by June 19.