Some are reporting this as a roadblock for Tesla but it may be a very welcome reprieve that allows a little more development time before launch.
After a tumultuous year for Tesla, Elon Musk and supportive pundits have long touted the launch of its self-driving robotaxi fleet as the proverbial white horse that will come to its rescue.
The launch of a pilot of just 10 cars on June 22 was to be the first indicator of whether that would truly be the case – albeit using Tesla’s existing Y model rather than the futuristic Cybercab that was revealed to much pomp last year. Now Texas lawmakers have asked the company to delay the pilot. This could actually be very good news for Tesla which didn’t wish to be seen as the ones to delay again.
Musk once famously promised a million robotaxis on the road by 2020, a deadline that came and went, but the press launch of its Cybercab in October last year created a buzz in Wall Street. Then in May, Musk ignited new interest as he announced the pilot of ten robotaxis in Austin Texas by June 22, on its Q1 earnings call. Musk himself has admitted that these are not fully self-driving cars, and one can hardly but speculate that Texas was chosen for the trial given stricter regulations he may have faced in Democrat-led states.
On the earnings call in May, Musk said there would be “millions of Teslas operating autonomously, fully autonomously, in the second half of next year, and made himself somewhat a hostage to fortune by promising “paid rides fully autonomously in Austin in June,” which he said would expand to to “many other cities in the US by the end of this year”. He did say the paid rides would be in Tesla Model Y vehicles – not the Cybercab. It was a clear indication that Tesla was concerned at falling behind competitors like Google’s Waymo which has some 1,500 working autonomous cabs across several major cities like Phoenix and San Francisco in The US, and even General Motor’s Cruise.
The pilot was to feature, not the independent self-driving vehicles that Musk had long touted but, according to the Financial Times, “the taxis will be geo-fenced to avoid the city’s most challenging intersections and come with backup teleoperators poised to intervene if problems occur”. Existing self-driving taxis like Waymo use the L4 level of autonomy, with sophisticated sensors throughout the vehicle, whereas Tesla was to launch with vision-only technology.
Many felt the pilot was rushed, but now Tesla may get the opportunity to take a breath, go back to the drawing board and launch a more pilot-ready vehicle in September, after seven Austin-based lawmakers requested the delay in a letter seen by Electrek, and dated June 18.
“As members of the Austin delegation in the Texas Senate and Texas House of Representatives, we are formally requesting that Tesla delay autonomous robotaxi operations until the new law takes effect on September I, 2025,” the letter read. “We believe this is in the best interest of both public safety and building public trust in Tesla’s operations. If Tesla opts to proceed with the June 22, 2025, launch date, we request that you respond to this letter with detailed information demonstrating that Tesla will be compliant with the new law upon the launch of driverless operations in Austin.”
A planned new law in Texas will not be heavy on regulation, but it does introduce requirements for following federal guidelines, and Elektrek says the latest version of the bill references SAE autonomous driving levels.
If Tesla does delay the pilot, expect much breast-thumping from pundits, but I cannot help thinking this is a very timely and helpful intervention for Tesla – and indeed for Austin.
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