Tesla has officially launched its long-awaited autonomous robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, marking a historic milestone in the self-driving vehicle industry. A Reuters witness saw several Tesla "robotaxis" on Sunday morning in a popular area of the Texas capital called South Congress with no one in the driver's seat but one person in the passenger seat.
The launch represents the culmination of more than a decade of promises from CEO Elon Musk regarding self-driving technology. Tesla planned to have front-seat riders acting as "safety monitors," though it remained unclear how much control they would have over the vehicles. The service is being rolled out with extreme caution, as Musk has said Tesla would be "super paranoid" about safety for the Austin rollout.
The timing of the launch coincides with new state legislation on autonomous vehicles. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, on Friday signed legislation requiring a state permit to operate self-driving vehicles, though the law doesn't take effect until September 1st. A 2017 Texas law specifically prohibited cities from regulating self-driving cars, making Texas one of the more permissive states for autonomous vehicle testing.
Initially, Tesla has sent invites to a select group of Tesla online influencers for a small and carefully monitored robotaxi trial, which the company has said would include 10 or 20 Model Y vehicles operated in a limited zone of Austin. The service comes with significant restrictions: Tesla plans to avoid bad weather, difficult intersections, and will not carry anyone below the age of 18.
Most of Tesla's sky-high stock value now rests on its ability to deliver robotaxis and humanoid robots, according to many industry analysts. Tesla is by far the world's most valuable automaker. Unlike competitors, Tesla is also bucking the young industry's standard practice of relying on multiple technologies to read the road, using only cameras, which Musk claims will be safer and more cost-effective than lidar and radar systems.
The launch puts Tesla in direct competition with established players like Alphabet's Waymo, which runs a paid robotaxi service in several U.S. cities, and Amazon's Zoox, as the autonomous vehicle industry continues its careful expansion into commercial markets.