Tesla Robotaxi Service Officially Goes Live In Austin With Teleoperators And Physical Attendants
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In a seminal albeit much-delayed milestone, Tesla has officially launched its robotaxi service on a limited scale in Austin, Texas.
🔥🔥 Tesla Robotaxi rides have started in Austin, Texas! pic.twitter.com/5sODPS72uV
— Tesla Newswire (@TeslaNewswire) June 22, 2025
As per the early access invites sent by Tesla over the past few days, the robotaxi service will only be available in specific geofenced areas of Austin via a fleet of between 10 and 20 vehicles. Users will be able to hail these vehicles via a specifically tailored app. Tesla intends to operate this service in Austin from 06:00 to 00:00.
For added safety, a Tesla employee – a physical attendant of sorts – will be seated in the front passenger seat, with easy access to the “emergency stop” and “pull over” commands via the bespoke robotaxi UI.
Do note that the NHTSA is currently reviewing Tesla’s answers to its safety-related, robotaxi-focused questionnaire.
Meanwhile, Texas has just passed its own autonomous mobility law that requires all operators to procure a permit for self-driving vehicles. The law goes into effect on the 01st of September.
Crucially, the Texas law only allows self-driving vehicles with Level 4 autonomy. Tesla’s FSD is currently characterized as Level 2. To circumvent any possible restrictions, Tesla’s robotaxis will be supported by a team of teleoperators who will take over in case of an emergency.
$GOOGL Waymo seen capturing 10% of U.S. rideshare trips by 2030 – Wells Fargo
Waymo’s market share reaching 3.5% by 2027 and then rising steadily to 10% by 2030. Within its operational zones, Waymo is forecast to achieve 16% penetration overall and 22% in its currently announced…
— Kaushik (@BigBullCap) June 18, 2025
Of course, Google’s Waymo is already recognized as a Level 4 autonomous mobility service that is currently available in Phoenix (Arizona), Los Angeles (California), San Francisco (California), and Austin (Texas). By the end of 2025, Waymo plans to expand its service to 10 new cities, including Las Vegas and San Diego.
Currently, Waymo’s autonomous fleet is almost exclusively made up of around 1,500 Jaguar I-Pace vehicles that are equipped with an expensive array of sensors, including LiDAR, 360-degree view cameras, and a radar, all feeding into onboard compute resources.
Waymo does intend to switch to cheaper vehicles. For instance, its 6th-gen robotaxi will be a modified version of the Zeekr minivan equipped with 13 cameras, 4 LiDAR sensors, and 6 radar sensors.
In this respect, Waymo’s approach to autonomous driving is quite different from that of Tesla’s, which leverages an interconnected neural network along with cameras that are supposedly capable of counting individual photons, rendering them immune to visual impairments such as direct sun glare or fog. Moreover, the launch of AI5 hardware later in 2025 will further boost Tesla’s autonomy-related prowess.
🚨BREAKING: Dan Ives says Tesla’s biggest growth chapter starts Sunday with Robotaxis
He calls it a $1 trillion opportunity pic.twitter.com/FMhFx7mqeT
— Muskonomy (@muskonomy) June 21, 2025
Tesla also plans to launch a dedicated ride-hailing vehicle, dubbed the Cybercab, in 2026 to better tap into what Wedbush’s Dan Ives calls a $1 trillion opportunity.
Do note that Tesla’s launch of a robotaxi service comes against a crucial backdrop: Elon Musk’s stake in SpaceX is currently worth more than his shares in Tesla.
In a related development, Elon Musk recently announced via an X post that the first Tesla vehicles will drive autonomously from the factory floor to the designated residences of their owners on the 28th of June.
