It was scheduled to finally arrive. After years of false starts and delays, Tesla Inc.’s long-gestating robotaxi was to be introduced Thursday. Until it was delayed, again.
Late Tuesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the event in Austin, Texas, had been pushed back to June 22. By Wednesday, Musk has embarked on an “apology tour,” as one analyst called it, to make amends with former bestie, President Donald Trump, in an apparent attempt to gain favorable autonomous-vehicle regulations.
“Trump needs Musk to stay close to the Republican party and Musk needs Trump for many reasons including a green light on a federal framework for autonomous [vehicles],” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note.
For years, Musk has grandly promised robotaxis. Thursday’s event was modestly called a “pilot” and will start with a small fleet of 10 vehicles in the Texas capital. [Musk, true to form, is breathlessly promising the service will catapult to about 1,000 vehicles and be available in other U.S. cities in a few months.]
In the days leading up to the rescheduled event, Musk said the robotaxi service would initially be restricted, or geofenced, to certain areas of Austin. The fully autonomous Cybercab, introduced last year, is still under development. “These are unmodified Tesla cars coming straight from the factory,” Musk wrote on social media platform X on Tuesday.
The launch was to be done under a controlled environment. Though on public roads, the vehicles were to be overseen by “tele-operators” able to seize control at any moment in the event the taxis faced difficult conditions.
The launch has been overshadowed by the billionaire’s feud with President Donald Trump. After Musk ridiculed Trump’s budget bill, which slashes credits for EVs, Trump threatened to eliminate government contracts with Musk companies such as Tesla and SpaceX. What is more, Tesla shares have tumbled 18% this year.
Tesla presumably chose Austin for the event because it is a hotbed of autonomous vehicle (AV) activity. Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo debuted its robotaxis in March, while Amazon.com Inc. (Zoox), Volkswagen’s ADMT, and startup Avride all have some level of AV testing there.
Tesla hopes to take a more-innovative, and cost effective, approach to separate itself from the pack. While Waymo and others use LiDAR and radar to navigate, Tesla employs cameras — an approach that is cheaper and could let Musk’s company scale up production.
Befitting his outspoken, mercurial nature, Musk last week reiterated his lofty plans to put 1 million self-driving Tesla vehicles on the roads by the end of 2026. Then again, in 2019 Musk made similar claims, saying there would be 1 million autonomous vehicles on the roads by 2020.
A whopping 93% of U.S. cities expect autonomous vehicles like Tesla’s robotaxis on their streets within five years, according to a survey of 100 technology leaders nationwide by Wakefield Research that was commissioned by Verra Mobility.
“From a city’s perspective, Tesla’s robotaxis are no different than what Waymo and other players have been doing for years. Municipalities have been aware that autonomous vehicles are coming and have been preparing. Tesla may accelerate their adoption in certain markets, but the challenges and opportunities remain the same,” said Jon Baldwin, executive vice president of government solutions at Verra Mobility.
