Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on Wednesday that his company will launch a paid robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, this June, the latest in a long line of sky-high promises he has yet to fulfill regarding autonomy.
Musk was unexpectedly sparse on details. He said that there will be no people in the cars that will use the yet-to-be-released “uncontrolled” version of his Full Self-Driving software.
Musk first teased the idea of launching a paid self-driving service back in October, when Tesla unveiled its specially designed Cybercab prototype, which has no steering wheel or pedals. At the time, he said that Tesla plans to launch an early version of the service in Texas and California in 2025, using Model Y SUVs and Model 3 sedans.
Bloomberg News recently reported that Tesla is in talks with Austin city officials to make this happen.
On Wednesday, Musk said that Tesla is “cautiously dipping its toe in the water first, just to make sure everything is okay,” but did not specify what that means. According to him, Tesla has been testing the performance of the unsupervised FSD software on the grounds of its Texas factory, a location that has much less complexity than a real-world environment.
“Then, you know, dip a few more toes in the water, then dip a foot in the water, and the top priority is the safety of the public and those in the car,” he said.
