Elon Musk's Tesla hits a speed bump in its California ‘Robotaxi' rollout: Permits
Musk is trying to transform Tesla and sees a nationwide fleet of fully autonomous taxis and humanoid robots as the only ideas that will matter to his long-term business strategy. He took the first step in Austin, Texas last month, piloting $4.20 rides with a human in the front passenger seat under the 'Robotaxi' brand.
But Tesla faces more hurdles to doing the same in California, where it lacks permits that would allow it to run any autonomous service, even with a safety driver, and to charge for it. Without those approvals, there can be no Robotaxi.
Tesla scheduled two meetings with the California DMV this month, with the latest for last Thursday. Hours later, the DMV and another oversight body publicly warned the company against an unauthorized Robotaxi rollout in the San Francisco Bay Area, amid media reports of such plans.
In both cases, Musk made a habit of dropping launch date targets just ahead of the calls. Two days before his team's first July meeting, the CEO posted on X that he was waiting on California regulators, despite not having submitted any recent applications. He gave a new timeline and location: 'a month or two' to bring Robotaxis to the Bay Area. Then, a day before the second DMV meeting this month, Musk spoke on an earnings call about his goal of getting permission for Robotaxi launches in the Bay Area, among other cities, by the end of the year.
The term 'Robotaxi' was never used in obtained emails, letters and meeting invites exchanged between the company and the DMV's autonomous vehicle branch over the past year.
Tesla and the employees mentioned in this story did not respond to requests for comment.
Clearing the air
The documents show moments where Tesla was on the back foot as it made appeals to the DMV.
On April 10, Casey Blaine, Tesla's senior counsel of regulatory affairs, got in touch with the department to dispel a suggestion — made on social media by an unnamed employee — that it would introduce unsupervised, full self-driving in Los Angeles later this year — software for its cars to move autonomously without the need for human monitoring or intervention.
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