Today the world got the first visual confirmation of Tesla’s Robotaxi in action, and now we’re getting multiple videos. After the first video was shared online, those familiar with the Austin areas quickly identified the location and Tesla fans then headed to the location to catch a glimpse.
The latest videos are shared from Art, show what is likely the same Tesla Model Y in grey, with the Robotaxi logo on the side. While the first clip shows the car driving public streets during the day, these clips show the car operating at night on streets of Austin, without a driver in the driver’s seat.
The car being driven not by a human, instead by an unreleased version of the Tesla’s FSD (Unsupervised) Software.
In the first clip we see the Robotaxi stopped at the light, then pull forward and turn left, smoothly, effortlessly, and without an informed observer (and the logo on the door), you simply wouldn’t know this wasn’t human operated.
In the second clip, we see a view from the vacant driver’s side, where the car moves straight through the intersection.
While Tesla owns this particularly Model Y, it’s the same hardware that consumers buy, it came right off the production line in Austin (and then loaded with a future software build).
With the Robotaxi technology now ready, the question is, when passenger? Turns out Musk confirmed this in one of a number of posts on X today, sharing some more insights into the future development and releases.
In reply to Own Sparks’ question about the start date for public rides, Musk replied.. June 22 (tentatively). If things go well, this means in about a week and a half, there’ll be customers riding in Tesla Rotaxi’s without a driver behind the wheel.
What isn’t clear is if these rides will be paid. Initially when Musk set the June timeline, he suggested they would be paid rides, however it wouldn’t be a surprise to find that the first rides are provided to early access users, given the volume of vehicles will be quite low.
We’re pretty confident Tesla can deliver a payment system for rides (i.e. Uber), so testing that won’t be a high priority right now and the revenue certainly won’t be meaningful. What will be important is for these first riders to have a great, uneventful experience and share it with the world.
Initially the plan was to have an autonomous home deliver by the end of the year, but looks like Tesla are confident that can happen before the end of this month. This car will roll off the production line, then drive itself out of the Tesla Gigafactory, then to a customer’s house.
It will be interesting how they protect the address of such an individual, who may actually be an employee of the company, which has no bearing on the technical demonstration.
