Tesla’s long -awaited robotaxis rolled on the streets for the first time in Austin, Texas on Sunday.
In a video shared by Tesla on X, a small group of invited analysts, affected and shareholders was shown participating in a paid ride.
According to reports, a small number of vehicles deployed had a human safety operator on the passenger seat.
Analysts stated that the “low-key” robotaxi launch highlighted Tesla’s big bid to compete with the current self-driving taxi operators in the US and China, as the sector grows.
Musk congratulated Tesla’s Artificial Intelligence and Chip Design Teams at launch In a post on XWriting that it was “the culmination of a decade of hard work”.
He said, “AI chip and software teams were made of scratches inside Tesla,” he said.
Next to Sunday’s pilot, he stated in a joki post that customers will pay “$ 4.20 flat fee” for riding in Tesla Robotaxis.
The small fleet of vehicles does not yet include cybercabs – Futuristic car concept was unveiled by Musk at Tesla’s “V, Robot” event in October – Whatever Mask says will be the driverless taxi of the company in future.
Instead it was a Tesla vehicle, with a small “robotaxi” logo, which took to Austin streets on Sunday.
Forester analyst Paul Miller described the launch of the pilot as a “low-key affair”.
“As expected, only a handful of vehicles are still available, they only work in a small portion of the city and the vehicle has a security driver when it faces conditions that it cannot handle autonomously,” he said.
But he said that the move exposed the company’s ambitions to offer rival firms already to offer driverless ride-linging worldwide.
Vemo owned by Google parent alphabet with Amazon’s zox, already provided self-driving taxi rides in Austin as well as San Francisco, California and Phoenix, Arizona.
Meanwhile Uber, who Recently announced that it will bring further tests of driverless taxis in UKChinese firms have partnered with Pony.ai, Weride and Moment to bring autonomous ride-halling to more cities outside the US and China.
Mr. Miller said Tesla is betting that the amount of cars distributes it, it is from the data vehicles and cheap, the camera-based self-driving technology “will allow it to come from the back and pull the rivals.
But he said its ability to compete, especially with Chinese firms dominating the sector, would depend on the improvement of its advanced aided driving system – called Tesla Full Self -Driving (FSD).
Has been subjected to investigation by FSD US auto regulator And complaints about its safety from customers.
“If he is not a big jump from FSD system driver Assistance Tech, which regularly uses Teslas buyers in some countries, then it requires much more remote monitoring and control from an army of security drivers,” said Mr. Miller.
“It will add Tesla’s costs, and will provide a lot of opportunities to embarrass the video of Tesla Robotaxis, which does strange things.”
It comes in the form of many operators that look at the growing market for driverless taxis.
German carmaker Volkswagen believes that it may be cheerful to € 450BN in size by 2035, According to a recent report by Fortune magazine,
But the rise of self-driving cars and ride-hying services on American roads has also received some doubt on their safety.
Tesla said in a post on his X account on Monday that its robotaxi service will “increase security for weak road users such as pedestrians and cyclists”.
US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is Allegedly After a request in May, reviewing information from Tesla about the safety of your self-driving taxis in bad weather.
General Motors Plug on its cruise robotaxi project in December After accidents that include its self-driving vehicles.
The company also cited a rapidly competitive market, which is a reason to suspend its ride-hinge initiative.
