Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the company will roll out a fleet of autonomous vehicles that will operate as taxis with no driver behind the wheel in Austin, Texas, in June. Hmmm, where have we heard that before?
Oh, right – from Musk himself back in 2019. At the automaker's Autonomy Day nearly six years ago, he said robotaxis would be a thing by some time in 2020. That didn't happen, obviously.
The latest bold claim comes from Tesla's Q4 2024 earnings call, in which the company reported a significant drop in year-over-year profits (US$2.3 billion, down from $7.9 billion in 2023).
The marque highlighted that Tesla would run its own taxi service for paid rides, consisting of a fleet of its own vehicles – as opposed to cars that private owners could offer up when they weren't in use, which Musk had previously promised.
The service is slated to take off in Austin, where Tesla moved its headquarters from California back in December 2021.
The company took to the Warner Bros. Studios lot in Los Angeles last October to unveil its Cybercab autonomous taxi, along with a Cybervan to ferry more people around sans a driver. The Cybercab was demoed doing rounds in the studio premises with passengers on board, but that's about it.
"Our purpose-built Robotaxi product – Cybercab – will continue to pursue a revolutionary 'unboxed' manufacturing strategy and is scheduled for volume production starting in 2026," Tesla noted in its earnings report.
Given Musk's not always accurate track record when it comes to timing announcements, we'll have to wait and see if Tesla robotaxis will be ferrying drivers around Austin come June.
Meanwhile, Waymo is going great guns. The Alphabet-owned robotaxi service made its rides available to everyone in Los Angeles last November, began merging onto LA freeways earlier this week to expand its operating radius, and is slated to launch in Atlanta and Austin later this year. Plus, it's set to start test rides in 10 more cities through 2025.
Source: Tesla
