On a balmy Sunday in Austin, Tesla fans awaited the promise of the future.
After a few hours of delays, that promise was finally realized, and a select group took their first rides, livestreaming their experience. While Tesla robotaxis are meant to be fully autonomous, Tesla employees were still present in the passenger seat of the cars for safety reasons.
Earlier this month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk teased the launch of the robotaxi, a driverless Tesla Model Y emblazoned with its namesake in Cybertruck-style font. “Beautifully simple design,” Musk wrote on X.
“These are unmodified Tesla cars coming straight from the factory, meaning that every Tesla coming out of our factories is capable of unsupervised self-driving,” he added.
On Sunday, Musk said the first Tesla robotaxi rides would be available for a flat fee of $4.20. A small group of invited users was the first to try them out.
Tesla fans buzzed on social media in the lead-up to the official launch, which was initially delayed as users awaited the release of the official Tesla robotaxi app.
“We are approaching the window where we expected to have the app and showing everything,” Chuck Cook, one of the early invitees to try the Tesla robotaxi, said on X. “There looks like there will be a small delay in the distribution of the app for couple hours.”
Cook eventually took the ride. In a livestream, he was impressed when the car made a three-point turn and backed into a parking space.
At the end of the ride, he said the app asked for a tip. A confused Cook said he clicked on the notification and got a message saying “just kidding.”
Cook said he was ultimately dropped off more than 10 minutes away from his destination, a Starbucks, because the Tesla robotaxis are still confined to a small area.
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Tesla AI, the division behind the robotaxis, said Sunday on X that Tesla robotaxis will eventually be deployed anywhere they are approved and are designed for “scalability.”
“It does not require expensive, specialized equipment or extensive mapping of service areas. It just works,” the company said.
The company launched a website where users can sign up for early access when the service becomes available in their area. It also launched an X feed dedicated to Tesla robotaxis.
With the launch of Tesla robotaxis, Austin continued to solidify itself as a new theater for Silicon Valley’s race to shape the new age of driverless transportation.
In March, Google-backed Waymo launched its autonomous ride-hailing service in partnership with Uber. Waabi, a Canadian startup backed by Uber and Nvidia, is set to launch fully autonomous trucks in Texas this year. Zoox, backed by Amazon, opened its first robotaxi serial production facility in Austin last week.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
