Tesla has started testing its autonomous ride-hail service with employees in Austin and the Bay Area ahead of the company’s planned robotaxi launch this summer.
“FSD Supervised ride-hailing service is live for an early set of employees in Austin & San Francisco Bay Area,” the company posted Wednesday on X.
FSD stands for “Full Self-Driving,” which is Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system available to Tesla owners via subscription that can perform some automated driving tasks. The system, which requires the driver to keep their hands on the wheel, is not yet capable of autonomously driving. Thousands of Tesla owners already drive themselves around with supervised FSD. Tesla’s announcement Wednesday centers on the addition of a “Robotaxi” app that will theoretically be used by non-Tesla owners to hail a vehicle in the fleet.
Ferrying employees before a launch is standard procedure in the world of autonomous ride-hail. For example, Waymo uses a similar playbook when it enters a new market. In the lead up to a commercial launch and after weeks of driverless testing, Waymo will open its service to employees before inviting certain members of the public.
Tesla plans to launch a robotaxi service in Austin in June, which the company reiterated Tuesday during its first-quarter earnings call. The automaker didn’t share many other details on the call, like when it expects to start charging for rides. The most color CEO Elon Musk provided was to say that he expects to roll out 10 to 20 vehicles on “day one” of service in Austin.
And while Tesla made a splash last year after it debuted its Cybercab concept — a futuristic-looking robotaxi built without a steering wheel or pedals — the company is poised to begin operations with its existing portfolio of vehicles.
The promotional video Tesla shared Wednesday shows a Model 3 sedan that has been fitted with a screen in the back for passengers that displays information such as estimated time of arrival, climate and music controls, and a button for an emergency stop.
A disclaimer at the bottom of the video reads: “Safety driver is present to supervise and only intervene as necessary. FSD (Supervised) does not make the vehicle autonomous.”
In January, Musk said there would be no drivers in the cars for Tesla’s Austin launch, which will rely on the yet-to-be-released “unsupervised” version of FSD. He also said at the time that Tesla would deploy the unsupervised FSD software to Tesla owners in California and other markets this year.
It’s not clear if Tesla still plans to launch a fully autonomous service in Austin from Day One, or whether Tesla will take a more measured approach by keeping a safety driver in the front seat for safety reasons.
In California, autonomous vehicle companies need a range of permits to operate. So far, Tesla only has a permit to test autonomously with a safety driver.
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