Tesla has long promised fully autonomous robotaxi vehicles, and now it has finally announced the arrival of this service, which will “go live” in June.
However, it will not be the huge fleet that everyone was hoping for, but up to 20 cars, which will be available only to a select group of people, according to Adam Jonas, an analyst at Morgan Stanley. He recently met with Tesla representatives to check on how things are going.
Jonas claims that the service has received the “green light” in Austin, Texas. However, the fleet will be small, 10 to 20 cars, that will travel on public roads and will be used only by people with invitations. The exact date of the start of the rides is still unknown.
Although this is a preliminary phase of the project, limiting the number of users could help the brand avoid bad publicity if something goes wrong. Jonas confirmed that Tesla will have teleoperators, who will follow the cars and take control in case of need.
Realistically, this doesn’t sound much different from what Tesla already has in Austin and San Francisco. Both cities have a ridesharing app for some employees. In these cities, users can call a Tesla car that will show up and take them to their destination, but the vehicle has a person in the driver’s seat who can take control if something goes wrong.
Austin’s new Robotaxi service sounds like a similar idea, but the human driver isn’t in the car; but can be controlled remotely. That’s where Tesla’s Ground Truth Machine technology stands out, which maps Austin using lidar and radar sensors.
