Ready to hit the road in one state is the Robotaxi that has been promised by Elon Musk. The Robotaxi has been long awaited from the time when Musk hinted at the idea of an autonomous ride-hailing service, however, the official launch of this Robotaxi was met with several cases of changing times and delays. Finally, Tesla is all geared up and far closer to launching its Robotaxi. Tesla already has permits in California but the testing underway is happening in another state. This means that one state could see the official debut of Tesla’s highly anticipated robotaxi.
First Robotaxi testing in one state
Although Tesla was given a permit from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in March 2024, the initial rollout of the Robotaxi won’t take place in California. As per the Transportation Charter-Party Carrier (TCP) license, Tesla has thus far been granted the allowance to conduct ride-hailing services in the state. For now, Tesla has the power to transport employees in its own vehicles only as pre-arranged trips, but later Tesla can extend this service to the public. In California, Tesla’s Robotaxis are not allowed to be fully driverless just as yet.
So, California does present some challenges that has prevented Tesla from choosing California as its testing grounds. Instead, Tesla has decided that the testing grounds would be in Texas. Already, the company has stated that internal and ongoing testing of the robotaxi ride-hailing app has been put in place in Bay Area. For now, no unsupervised driverless rides have been tried. This summer, however, Austin will be the testing grounds for first unsupervised driverless rides. The push toward driverless rides is inevitably the main plan from the EV giant, Tesla. Tesla is finally getting to showcase their Full Self-Driving (FSD) software which is a software that quite a buzz was made about.
All the excitement for the Cybercab
While the news of the Robotaxi fleet undergoing testing may strike up some attention, Tesla will demand attention once it brings forth Cybercab. Cybercab is at the center of Tesla’s Robotaxi service and is a two-seater electric vehicle that won’t have a steering wheel or pedals.
Tesla teased audiences with its slight revelation of the Cybercab at the “We Robot” event that took place in June. Plus, car enthusiasts were further teased with all that they didn’t see at the presentation. The Cybercab will be the strikingly futuristic feature of Tesla’ ride-hailing network. The idea behind Cybercab is to create a sort of robotic Uber that can be called through an app by Tesla. Thus far, it seems like quite a challenge to allow driverless vehicles to be on the roads in a mass scale. Only once Tesla gains autonomous operation approval from the California DMV and joins the CPUC’s autonomous vehicle passenger program can driverless vehicles become a possibility.
Regulations are far more laxed in Austin and as such Tesla is enjoying establishing its testing grounds in the state of Texas.
Robotaxi readiness and prospects
Although long awaited, Tesla’s Robotaxi rollout has been classified as an endeavor filled with doubts despite the fact the rollout city and date were confirmed early in June. It is critics who point out that Tesla’s approach to autonomy may fall short of reaching the safety bars that are in place. While Tesla has often said that full on autonomy was nearly a year away, the EV brand missed the mark on its predictions quite a few times.
While Tesla has made some failed promises, Tesla’s Robotaxi is finally showing some promise with the ongoing internal employee ride-hailing tests being conducted in the Bay area. Tesla, however, does not have the competitive edge. Both Waymo and Cruise are not far behind Tesla’s track and are making waves in California and Arizona already.
Perhaps Austin will be the first state where you can hail taxis without drivers and if all works out as predicted, Tesla could be leading an autonomous revolution.
