Good news! Say you want to experience Tesla’s Full Self Driving (Supervised) feature, the still-incomplete software purported to deliver autonomous driving capability in new Teslas, but don’t want to rent or buy a Tesla. In the not-so-distant future, it seems, you might be able to use a smartphone to hail a rideshare Tesla driven by … FSD (Supervised)!
Sounds like a breakthrough, right? Sort of. For now, Tesla has said in an Instagram post that “FSD Supervised ride-hailing service is live for an early set of employees in Austin and San Francisco Bay Area.” So, it’s not like you can just whip out your phone, hail a self-driving Tesla, hop in, and let FSD (Supervised) drop you at your local watering hole (or pick your soggy self up later). Only what sounds like a limited group of Tesla employees can do that. For now, and probably without the happy hour part. This is because self-driving taxis, which exist in limited scope in certain cities already—think Waymo—that pick up actual passengers are regulated and require approval to operate in most places.
If Tesla’s using its own employees to test the same FSD software its customers have access to (remember, this is all “beta” software, meaning users have to agree/sign up to use an unfinished product), the only “ride-hailing service” elements are the software that connects riders with FSD-equipped Teslas and displays pertinent trip info on the rear-seat display.
The car in the video also has a driver (who isn’t driving) to perform the “Supervised” part of the plan. So, this isn’t exactly an end-to-end, fully autonomous taxi service. It’s basically the Uber app, or the equivalent of texting a friend to pick you up. Indeed, there appears to be no indication Tesla has sought or received permission to pick up civilians using FSD-equipped, driverless taxis as of yet, i.e. run an actual service. Which, given our harrowing experience with FSD in our very own Tesla Model Y, is probably a good thing.
Waymo robotaxis conspicuously operate without human drivers inside them (although they’re monitored remotely). So what is Tesla on about here? Our best guess? The company has promised a self-driving taxi (Cybercab!) with operating software based on FSD soon. It’s among the highly ambitious claims often promoted by Elon Musk, many of which have failed to come to fruition and have been viewed cynically as levers to bolster the company’s stock price. This includes humanoid robots, AI, and those robotaxis. And after this week’s disastrous earnings call, where it was revealed the automaker’s profits plummeted 71 percent last quarter, Tesla could use a little bump in the markets.
Our take? This announcement was made more to satiate Tesla believers and less an indication Tesla is on the cusp of some breakthrough with its self-driving tech. It’s not total bunk, of course; as Tesla notes in its Instagram post, “This service helps us develop & validate FSD networks, the mobile app, vehicle allocation, mission control & remote assistance operations.” All of those will be critical in the successful deployment of a fleet of robotaxis if or when Tesla launches one.