After announcing in October the launch of Tesla’s new Cybercab prototype in 2026, Elon Musk has reiterated his ambitious promises on autonomous driving by stating that Tesla will launch its first paid ride-hailing robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, using its own fleet of vehicles from June 2025.
According to the CEO, the service will rely on an “unsupervised” version of the Full Self-Driving (FSD), Tesla’s advanced driver assistance software designed to enable vehicles to “drive” autonomously but yet-to-be-fully autonomous. As reported by Bloomberg News, the company has been negotiating with the local authorities to integrate the service in the city – which has become a hub of technological experimentation for autonomous driving innovation – but this has not dispelled concerns regarding the criteria by which Tesla intends to measure the safety levels of its robotaxis.
Not only are the performance tests for the unsupervised FSD software conducted near Tesla’s Texas factory, an environment far less complex than an urban setting, but Tesla also does not provide exhaustive details on the conditions or severity of the crashes recorded in its vehicle safety report.
Consequently, the issue of autonomous vehicles’ reliability is becoming increasingly relevant and widely debated. In San Francisco, where other companies like Cruise, Zoox, and Waymo are conducting autonomous taxi trials, numerous incidents and disruptions have occurred involving pedestrians and residents. These have included blocked emergency services, dogs being run over and traffic obstructions, leading in some cases to the suspension of pilot operations.
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