The ride-hailing service will launch with human drivers before transitioning to autonomy
February 28, 2025 at 13:50
- Tesla has taken an important step towards putting a tobotaxi service on American streets.
- The company applied for a charter-party carrier permit in late 2024, news reports say.
- Musk unveiled the Cybercab last year, promising to launch a driverless cab service in 2025.
Tesla is making moves to enter the ride-hailing business, and it’s not just talk this time. The company has officially applied for a transportation charter-party carrier permit from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), a necessary step to operate a fleet of vehicles for paid rides. This signals a major step toward Tesla’s long-discussed vision of a robotaxi service.
According to reports from Reuters and Bloomberg, Tesla’s ride-hailing service is expected to launch with human drivers behind the wheel, at least initially. While Elon Musk has been promising a fully autonomous taxi fleet for some time, claiming last fall that he’d start offering ride-hailing services in the US in 2025, regulatory hurdles and the current limitations of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software mean that a driverless rollout isn’t happening just yet.
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Musk’s strategy mirrors what companies like Waymo have done – starting with human-operated services before transitioning to fully autonomous operations. Tesla is also reportedly looking to launch its ride-hailing service in Texas later this year, potentially as early as June, though California could follow soon after. In addition to this charter-party carrier permit it still needs a separate autonomous license before it can start running driverless cabs.
Tesla’s hotly anticipated Cybercab, a purpose-built autonomous ride-hailing vehicle, is currently in development. Unveiled in October 2024, it lacks a steering wheel and pedals, but production isn’t expected to begin before 2027. Until then, Tesla’s ride-hailing ambitions will rely on its existing fleet of EVs with human drivers.
Musk has been vocal about Tesla’s unique approach to autonomy, relying entirely on cameras and neural networks rather than LiDAR, which is favored by competitors like Waymo and Cruise. This approach has sparked debate in the industry, with some experts skeptical about whether Tesla’s vision-only system can achieve full autonomy safely.
Meanwhile, Waymo has been ramping up its own driverless operations, now handling over 200,000 paid rides per week in cities like San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. That puts pressure on Tesla to prove it can compete. But Tesla’s robotaxi ambitions stretch beyond America’s borders. It also wants to launch a ride-hailing service in China.
