It sure looks like the rubber is about to meet the road when it comes to Elon Musk’s decades-long Tesla robotaxi promises. An anonymous source with Tesla says the long-awaited robotaxi service will begin in Austin, Texas on June 12. This is roughly in line with Musk’s latest promise that a handful of robotaxis would be terrorizing the city by the end of June.
Of course, this date could still be changed, according to the source that spoke with Bloomberg. It is the Tesla tradition to kick plans down the road and hope people forget (Looking at you, second-generation Roadster). Anyway, in preparation for the official launch, this week Tesla operated a test vehicle on public roads in the city with no one in the driver’s seat, the person said. There was a Tesla engineer in the Model Y‘s passenger seat, but it was being driven autonomously with no remote operation.
Earlier today, Musk took to his social media site, X, to confirm the test. He added that the company hadn’t had any incidents involving self-driving Model Ys on public roads in the Texas city.
For the past several days, Tesla has been testing self-driving Model Y cars (no one in driver’s seat) on Austin public streets with no incidents.
A month ahead of schedule.
Next month, first self-delivery from factory to customer.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2025
The hypothetical start of an autonomous vehicle service builds upon testing that Tesla has been recently doing with safety drivers around the city. It has apparently been carrying employees ahead of the planned public rollout.
Seems kinda sketchy
Right now, the program is using consumer-grade Model Ys, but that’ll theoretically change over the Cybercab at some point in the future. The Austin, Texas-based company rolled out a Cybercab demonstrator with no steering wheel or pedals at an event in 2024. It took attendees for rides, but it was crucially on private land so the route could be planned out, and there was no real permitting required.
Here’s a little more from Bloomberg on how Texas is handling Tesla’s testing:
Austin,Texas, where Tesla is headquartered, has relatively relaxed rules around autonomous driving, which is regulated much like any other type of passenger vehicle operation. The driverless vehicles are required to have cameras and be able to follow traffic laws and have insurance. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, which regulates rideshare services, doesn’t currently list Tesla as a rideshare licensee.
The city of Austin doesn’t regulate self-driving vehicles, but has set up a task force that coordinates with Tesla and other autonomy companies.
I don’t love the vibe of this whole operation, I gotta tell you.
I don’t know about this
It seems that the plan right now is that Tesla will roll out a fleet of about 10 self-driving vehicles in Austin. From there, Musk says it’ll get a bit bigger every week. Within a few months, there could — theoretically — be tons of self-driving Teslas roaming the streets. Sure, Jan.
Forgive me if I’m taking all of this with a massive grain of salt. I mean, for the love of Christ, Musk has been promising robotaxis on U.S. streets for well over a decade. Remember how long it’s been since Barack Obama was the president? Well, more time has passed since Musk first said his robotaxis would be roadworthy than since Obama left office.