‘A lot at stake': Tesla launches its driverless robotaxis
Tesla launched its long-awaited robotaxi service on the streets of Austin following almost a decade of hype from Elon Musk, kicking off a precarious new era for the carmaker.
Several of the initial users live-streamed video as they downloaded the ride-hailing app and went on their first driverless taxi trips. Shortly after 2pm local time, an online influencer who goes by Bearded Tesla showed the empty driver seat during a ride in a red Model Y SUV that lasted just over 10 minutes.
'It was smooth,' one of the riders said on the video after the trip ended.
The users with early access are being charged a $US4.20 flat rate for rides, Musk said earlier in a social-media post. Tesla hand-picked the initial riders, meaning the general public will still have to wait.
The launch is beginning modestly, with just a handful of vehicles limited to a small area of the city.
The low-key rollout has nonetheless been highly anticipated by investors, who are counting on the new business line to revive a company battered by flagging sales and a consumer backlash against Musk. The Tesla chief executive officer is betting the company's future on autonomous driving, artificial intelligence and humanoid robots — buzzy but still largely unproven markets.
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'This is the first true test,' Gene Munster, managing partner of Deepwater Asset Management, said in an interview. 'Anything that happens will be amplified, especially the negative. There's a lot at stake.'
Tesla had ramped up testing recently in the Texas state capital, where Model Y SUVs with manufacturer plates have been spotted regularly in the south and southeast portions of the city.
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Tesla investor and social media personality Sawyer Merritt posted videos on X showing him ordering, getting picked up and taking a ride to a nearby bar and restaurant using a Tesla robotaxi app. If Tesla succeeds with the small deployment, it still faces major challenges in delivering on Musk's promises to scale up quickly in Austin and other cities, industry experts say. It could take years or decades for Tesla and self-driving rivals, such as Alphabet's Waymo, to fully develop a robotaxi industry, said Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-engineering professor with expertise in autonomous-vehicle technology. A successful Austin trial for Tesla, he said, would be "the end of the beginning - not the beginning of the end". Most of Tesla's sky-high stock value now rests on its ability to deliver robotaxis and humanoid robots, according to many industry analysts. Tesla is by far the world's most valuable automaker. The Tesla robotaxi rollout comes after more than a decade of Musk's unfulfilled promises to deliver self-driving Teslas. Musk has said Tesla would be "super paranoid" about robotaxi safety in Austin, including operating in limited areas. The service in Austin will have other restrictions as well. Tesla plans to avoid bad weather, difficult intersections, and will not carry anyone below age 18. Tesla has deployed a small group of self-driving taxis picking up paying passengers in Texas, with chief Elon Musk announcing the "robotaxi launch" and social media influencers posting videos of their first rides. Musk called the moment the "culmination of a decade of hard work" in a post on his social media platform X and noted "the AI chip and software teams were built from scratch within Tesla". Teslas were spotted in an Austin neighbourhood called South Congress with no one in the driver's seat but one person in the passenger seat. The automaker planned a small trial with about 10 vehicles and front-seat riders acting as "safety monitors", though it remained unclear how much control they had over the vehicles. In recent days, the automaker sent invites to a select group of influencers for a carefully monitored robotaxi trial in a limited zone. The rides are being offered for a flat fee of $US4.20 ($A6.50), Musk said on X. Tesla investor and social media personality Sawyer Merritt posted videos on X showing him ordering, getting picked up and taking a ride to a nearby bar and restaurant using a Tesla robotaxi app. If Tesla succeeds with the small deployment, it still faces major challenges in delivering on Musk's promises to scale up quickly in Austin and other cities, industry experts say. It could take years or decades for Tesla and self-driving rivals, such as Alphabet's Waymo, to fully develop a robotaxi industry, said Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-engineering professor with expertise in autonomous-vehicle technology. A successful Austin trial for Tesla, he said, would be "the end of the beginning - not the beginning of the end". Most of Tesla's sky-high stock value now rests on its ability to deliver robotaxis and humanoid robots, according to many industry analysts. Tesla is by far the world's most valuable automaker. The Tesla robotaxi rollout comes after more than a decade of Musk's unfulfilled promises to deliver self-driving Teslas. Musk has said Tesla would be "super paranoid" about robotaxi safety in Austin, including operating in limited areas. The service in Austin will have other restrictions as well. Tesla plans to avoid bad weather, difficult intersections, and will not carry anyone below age 18.
Canberra Times
2 hours ago
- Canberra Times
Tesla launches self-driving robotaxis in Austin, Texas
The rides are being offered for a flat fee of $US4.20 ($A6.50), Musk said on X. Tesla investor and social media personality Sawyer Merritt posted videos on X showing him ordering, getting picked up and taking a ride to a nearby bar and restaurant using a Tesla robotaxi app.
