Tesla boss Elon Musk has been promising self-driving cars for more than 10 years, but now he says they really are actually nearly here. After unveiling the autonomous Cybercab concept last year and claiming that self-driving Teslas will roll out in 2025, the Tesla boss confirmed this week that he plans to roll out a robotaxi service later this year.
During an event focused on autonomy late last year, Musk claimed that Unsupervised Full Self-Driving would be available for Tesla Model 3 and Model Y cars from 2025. The company also shared its Cybercab autonomous taxi concept, which it initially said would be in production in 2026.
For once, Musk might be hitting his deadlines as the Tesla boss claimed last night that an autonomous taxi service using its cars will launch in select U.S. cities this summer, reports TechCrunch. The service will reportedly launch with Tesla’s own fleet of vehicles in Austin, Texas, from June 2025:
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday his company will launch a paid ride-hailing robotaxi service in Austin, Texas using its own fleet vehicles this coming June — the latest in a long line of sky-high promises he has yet to meet about autonomy.
Musk was otherwise unsurprisingly light on details. During an earnings call, Musk said there will be no drivers in the cars, which will use the yet-to-be-released “unsupervised” version of its Full Self-Driving software. He also said he expects the unsupervised FSD software to be released to owners in California and “many regions of the U.S.” this year. But the idea of owners adding their own cars to the Tesla ride-hail fleet won’t happen until at least next year, Musk said.
It’s important to note that the target of June 2025 doesn’t mean delivery of the Cybercab has been brought forward. Instead, this new service will rely on cars like the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y to offer lifts around Austin. Production of the Cybercab is still slated to kick off in 2026, adds Motor1.
What’s more, this announcement doesn’t mean that unsupervised full self-driving is coming to the masses just yet. The Austin trail will very much focus on using cars owned by Tesla, with the automaker adding that private owners may be able to offer their cars up for the service from 2026.
As it stands, the only self-driving that private Tesla cars are currently able to do is around the Tesla factories. New cars have reportedly started driving themselves out of the Fremont factory, reports Electrek, with Musk claiming that the development meant that “unsupervised self-driving begins,” as the site reports:
The Tesla vehicles in this video drive 1.2 miles on private roads at low speeds around the factory. This is nothing more than what Tesla demonstrated on the private roads of the Warner Bros studio with the Robotaxi last year.
This is clearly not the “beginning of unsupervised self-driving” or at least, not in the way that Musk has promised Tesla FSD owners for years.
Musk’s latest estimates put the rollout of unsupervised full self-driving at “around Q2 2025” for drivers in California and Texas. This means that owners who have waited through 10 years of FSD delays will have to wait just a little longer to see if yet another promise is broken by the billionaire. Drivers in other states don’t yet have a date with disappointment.