Despite the criticism of Full Self-Driving (FSD), which often causes accidents and finesTesla has started testing its autonomous taxi service. Initially, the testing program will involve the company’s employees in Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area. The full launch of the service is scheduled for the summer of 2025.
«The FSD Supervised passenger transportation service is already in operation for the first employees in Austin and the San Francisco area», — Tesla announced on the X platform.
The FSD Advanced Driver Assistance System is available by subscription to Tesla electric vehicle owners. Although it is capable of performing some automated actions, the system still cannot fully control the car without human intervention. The driver has to keep his hands on the wheel to intervene in the automation at any time. This system is already available and widely used by many Tesla owners.
Tesla’s new announcement concerns the launch of a separate Robotaxi app, which will allow even non-Tesla owners to call a car in the future. The company plans to officially launch the Robotaxi service in Austin in June, but did not share any other details. The only thing Elon Musk said was that 10 to 20 cars are planned to be available on the «first day of the» launch in Austin.
FSD Supervised ride-hailing service is live for an early set of employees in Austin & San Francisco Bay Area.
We've completed over 1.5k trips & 15k miles of driving.
This service helps us develop & validate FSD networks, the mobile app, vehicle allocation, mission control &… pic.twitter.com/pYVfhi935W
— Tesla AI (@Tesla_AI) April 23, 2025
Although last year Tesla made a splash by presenting the concept Cybercab — a futuristic robot taxi without a steering wheel and pedals, — the company is likely to launch the new service using existing electric car models. The published promotional video shows the Model 3 sedan.
The car has a screen for passengers in the back seat that displays the estimated time of arrival, climate and music settings, and an emergency stop button. The video cautions that this robotaxi will still have a driver:
«A driver is present to monitor the situation and intervene only when necessary. FSD (Supervised) does not make the car fully autonomous».
In January, Musk said that cars in Austin would run without drivers, and a new version of the software — «unsupervised» FSD, i.e., without supervision, would be used for this purpose. At the same time, he said that Tesla would release this version of the software for car owners in California and other markets this year.
It’s not yet clear whether Tesla really plans to launch a fully autonomous service in Austin right away, or whether it will leave drivers in the front seat for safety reasons. In California, companies working with autonomous vehicles need to obtain a number of permits. Currently, Tesla only has a permit for testing with a driver present.
It is worth noting — so far, the FSD system does not work perfectly and periodically leads to accidents.
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