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Tesla has begun testing driverless robotaxis in Austin ahead of June 12 launch, report says

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Elon Musk

We now have a tentative launch date for Tesla's long-awaited robotaxi service in Austin, Texas: June 12.

How long has Tesla been testing out these driverless vehicles that will soon be on the public streets of a major U.S. city? According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, testing has been going on for "several days."

"For the past several days, Tesla has been testing self-driving Model Y cars (no one in driver’s seat) on Austin public streets with no incidents," Musk posted on his X account on Thursday.

"A month ahead of schedule," Musk continued. "Next month, first self-delivery from factory to customer."

According to a new report from Bloomberg, Tesla has an internal deadline of June 12 for the driverless robotaxi launch in Austin.

Musk has been promising the imminent launch of Tesla's robotaxi service for years. For Example, in 2022, Musk claimed that the company's robotaxis would be ready in 2024.

Earlier this week, Fortune reported that multiple state and local agencies in Austin have yet to receive crucial safety information about the driverless vehicles that will soon be traveling around the city. Fortune reported that Tesla had yet to provide sufficient plans, guides, or training for local emergency responders in the event that a robotaxi crashes and passengers need to be rescued. Musk, in his X post, did not address whether Tesla has since provided this information to Austin officials, but Fortune cited city officials who said the information would be provided prior to launch.

Bloomberg's source said that the June 12 launch date is subject to change, but a potential change of plans has yet to come up within the company. Bloomberg also reported that robotaxi testing in Austin started this week, with Musk seemingly confirming this reporting with his X post.

Although Musk shared that the company has been testing the robotaxi without a human in the driver's seat, EV outlet Electrek says the service is expected to use "heavy teleoperation." This means a human operator could control the Tesla robotaxi remotely from outside of the vehicle.

In addition, as Electrek points out, the standard testing process for such a service typically requires zero incidents "over months of testing and hundreds of thousands of miles before launching."

Roughly two weeks seems like a very short timeline to fully test Tesla's driverless robotaxi service. However, as Bloomberg points out, Texas has "relatively relaxed rules around autonomous driving." There's no regulatory body that will stop Musk and company from launching Tesla's robotaxi on June 12, regardless of how ready the service is to drive the streets of Austin.



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