Report: Tesla has not prepared Austin for robotaxi launch next week (updated)
On Wednesday, May 28, Bloomberg reported that Tesla will now be launching its robotaxi service in Austin on June 12. According to that report, the June 12 date "could still change" in the days ahead. You can read our original story on the Tesla robotaxi rollout below.
Elon Musk has said that he's now going all-in with his companies after shifting focus from his role as a special government employee for the Trump administration. And there's no shortage of problems for Musk to attend to, including Tesla's recent abysmal quarterly report and crashing Tesla sales numbers in Europe. Now, another big Tesla project may be in jeopardy.
Tesla is set to launch its long-awaited robotaxi program in Austin, Texas next week. However, according to a new report from Fortune, the city of Austin is not ready for Tesla's robotaxis just yet.
A small fleet of Tesla robotaxis is already up and running in Austin and San Francisco, serving an "early set of employees" in the two cities as part of an initial testing phase. Next week's broader rollout would bring about 10-20 Tesla Model Y self-driving cars to Austin's streets, serving the public for the first time in a robotaxi capacity. If successful, Tesla plans to scale the number of robotaxis into the thousands.
Fortune reports that Tesla held initial meetings with both state and city agencies in Austin a few weeks ago. However, according to that report, officials with Austin's transportation department, the city's emergency first responders, and federal regulators say that Tesla has failed to deliver crucial information regarding the service, which is supposed to go live in just a few days.
Per Fortune, the company has so far failed to share first responder plans or guides with Austin's transportation department and fire department. That information could be critical if a robotaxi crashes and first responders need to rescue passengers, put out a vehicle fire, or use "jaws of life" rescue tools. In fact, Austin officials told Fortune Tesla hasn't even told the city what level of autonomy the Tesla robotaxis will have at launch, meaning Austin isn't sure if Tesla's service will require human supervision or not.
While other self-driving car companies, like Waymo, are currently operating in Austin, Tesla uses its own technology. Waymo's vehicles have large sensors sitting atop the cars in order to navigate the roads, while Tesla's vehicles utilize video cameras and AI.
Tesla has been in touch with state and city agencies and has assured them that more information is on the way, according to officials the Fortune reporter spoke with. The company has been present in Austin for at least a few weeks now in order to run some initial testing. However, Fortune described the preparations so far as rushed.
Musk has been hyping up Tesla's robotaxi capabilities for years, even as competitors beat him to launching their own self-driving ride services. Meanwhile, Musk is overseeing preparations for the latest Starship launch. So far, the Starship rockets have had an unfortunate tendency to explode.
Will Tesla's robotaxi service have similar problems after launch? We'll know more soon.
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