Tesla deployed a small group of self-driving taxis paying passengers in Austin, Texas on Sunday, in which CEO Elon Musk announced “Robotaxi launch” and social-media affected posted videos of their first ride.
The event first marked Tesla Cars have paid to riders without human drivers, there is a business Musk The electric car sees as important for the manufacturer’s financial future.
He called the moment “a decade of hard work” in a post on his social-media platform. X And noted that “AI chip and software teams were made from scratches within Tesla.”
Teslas was seen in a neighborhood called South Congress in the early hours of Sunday, with no one on the driver’s seat, but the passenger was a person on the seat. The automaker planned a small test with about 10 vehicles and front-seat riders working as a “security monitor”, although it was not clear how much they had control over the vehicles.
In recent times, the automaker invited a select group of affected for carefully monitored robotaxi testing in a limited area. The ride is being offered for flat fees of $ 4.20 (about Rs 360), Musk said on X.
Tesla’s investor and social-media personality Sawyer Merit posted videos on X on Sunday afternoon, with a nearby bar and a nearby bar and restaurant, riding long and short of a nearby bar and a nearby restaurant, using a Tesla Robotaxi app.
If Tesla is successful with small deployment, it still faces great challenges in fulfilling the promises of the mask of quick growing in Austin and other cities, saying industry experts say.
Tesla and self-driving rivals, such as alphabet’s vemo can take years or decades, to fully develop a robotaxi industry, a Carnegie Mellon University’s Computer-Engineering Professor Philipper Copman said with expertise in autonomous vehicle technology.
A successful Austin test for Tesla, he said, “The beginning of the beginning – not the beginning of the end.”
According to many industry analysts, most of the sky-high stock price of Tesla is now on its ability to give robotaxis and humanoid robots. Tesla is the most valuable automaker in the world so far.
As soon as Tesla’s robotax-rolout date was near, Texas MPs moved to implement the autonomous vehicle rules. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed a law required to operate self-driving vehicles on Friday.
The law, which is effective on 1 September, indicates that state officials on both sides want the driverless industry to move carefully.
Tesla did not respond to the requests of the comment. The Governor’s office refused to comment.
Easy to get, losing is easy
The law softens the state’s previous anti-regulation stance on autonomous vehicles. A 2017 Texas Law, particularly banned cities by regulating self-driving cars.
The new law requires autonomous vehicle operators to obtain approval from the Texas Department of motor vehicles before working on public roads without human driver. This gives state officials the power to cancel the permit for operators that they consider a public threat.
The law also requires the firms to provide information about how the respondents can first deal with their driverless vehicles in emergency situations.
Law permit requirements for “automated motor vehicles” are not much, but firms can operate legally and safely keeping their vehicles in mind.
It defines an automated vehicle as a minimum “level 4” autonomous-driving capacity under a recognized standard, which means that it can work with no human driver under specified conditions. Level 5 autonomy is the top level and means that a car can drive anywhere under any condition.
Compliance is much easier than some states, especially California, which needs to present a vehicle-observation data under the state inspection.
Bryant Walker Smith, a university in South Carolina, who focuses on autonomous driving, said it seems to any company that meets the minimum application requirements, he will get a Texas permit – but may lose it even if there is a problem.
“It is difficult to achieve California permit, losing,” he said. “In Texas, it is easy to achieve permit and lose.”
Musk’s safety vows
The Tesla robotaxi rollout comes after more than a decade after a decade over a decade after a decade that distributes self-driving teslas.
Musk has stated that Tesla Austin would have a “super paranoid” about robotaxi safety, including working in limited areas.
There will also be other restrictions in service in Austin. Tesla is planning to avoid bad weather, hard intersections, and will not take anyone under 18 years of age.
The commercialization of autonomous vehicles has been risky and expensive. The GM cruise was discontinued after a serious accident. Regulators are closely watching Tesla and his rivals, Wemo and Amazon’s zoxes.
Tesla is also increasing the standard practice of the youth industry to rely on many techniques to read the road using cameras. This, Musk says, will be safe and much less expensive than the lidar and radar system connected by rivals.
© Thomson Reuters 2025
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