Tesla Robotaxi Service Expands to the Public, With Caveats

Tesla says it will open up its robotaxi rail-hailing service to the public. An app has been created for service in the foreseeable future—but no concrete dates yet. “Robotaxi app now available to all. Download to join the waitlist – expanding access soon. Now on the US Apple App Store – Android coming in the future,” Teslamotors posted on Instagram.

The carmaker has been testing a fleet of driverless vehicles on public roads in Austin, Texas, but access was limited to influencers, investors, and other invitees. Service during the test period has been limited to a geofenced area that does not include the airport. Tesla posted a picture of someone going for a 10-minute ride in Palo Alto, California. With the robotaxi to arrive in five minutes for a $4.20 fare. (Cue eye rolling.) The model, at least for now, is for each ride to cost a flat rate of $4.20 with no tipping, but the “getting started” page on the Tesla website says pricing is subject to change. The app shows robotaxis will be available in Austin, Texas, and also add San Francisco.

Monitored Highway Driving Added

The test fleet in Austin also started driving on highways but with a safety monitor in the driver’s seat who could assume control if necessary. The Tesla Robotaxi account on X says the safety monitors are only for trips that involve highway driving. For city driving, there had been safety drivers in the passenger seat, but it is unclear if that will still be the case for public riders. Further muddying the waters, on September 1 a new Texas law went into effect that requires vehicles to have a safety driver unless they are certified as Level 4 or Level 5 autonomous vehicles. While other companies have reached this milestone, Tesla has not. Its Full Self Driving system is only Level 2. In the San Francisco area, Tesla has robotaxis in operation with safety drivers.

Tesla Not Robotaxi Leader

Tesla is not the leader in the robotaxi field. Alphabet’s Waymo has been operating self-driving vehicles with no safety monitors in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Phoenix, and Atlanta and continues to add cities. Waymo also has more safety technology, including lidar, and redundant equipment than Tesla’s vision-only camera-based system. Tesla is also facing regulatory scrutiny and lawsuits over its self-driving claims. MotorTrend recently went to Austin to compare rides in a Tesla robotaxi and a Waymo-operated Jaguar I-Pace. The result: while the Tesla Robotaxi shows promise, it has not caught up to the segment-leading Waymo.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made it clear he sees robotaxis and humanoid robots as key to the company’s future success, rather than the aging fleet of electric vehicles that Tesla’s fortune was built on. For years he has touted robotaxi-enabled Model 3 and Model Y vehicles as a way for owners to earn money with their vehicle when it might otherwise be parked. Musk has been promising full self-driving for almost a decade and says there will be millions of autonomous Teslas roaming the globe in less than a year.

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Death of Dojo

The announcement of the expansion of the robotaxi service also comes on the heels of Tesla’s decision to abandon work on its Dojo supercomputer, which Musk formerly described as essential to enabling full self-driving with its massive data processing and AI capability. Tesla will rely on Nvidia and other semiconductor and controller suppliers and cloud services for the computing power needed.

Investors saw the move as reducing Tesla from a leader in the field to just another automaker offering driver assist systems. Tesla faces increasing competition in this field with Mercedes and Chinese companies such as BYD leading the pack and other companies such as Volkswagen, Ford, GM, and Zoox making strides.