Tesla CEO Elon Musk predicted that the company would be able to… remove security monitors from robotaxis “by the end of the year.” He also said that Tesla will launch a robotaxi service in 8-10 new markets also before the end of 2025.
“By the end of this year, we expect there will be no safety drivers in at least a large portion of Austin,” Musk said on a call with investors. “So within a few months, we expect there will be no safe drivers at all, at least in some parts of Austin. Obviously, we're being very cautious about deploying them.”
Tesla robotaxis in Austin and San Francisco are equipped with safety monitors with kill switch access, a fallback option that Waymo does not currently need for its commercial robotaxi service. The safety monitor is located on the passenger seat in Austin and on the driver's seat in San Francisco. Musk said human monitors only exist because Tesla is “paranoid about safety” and not because of any flaws in the company's technology.
“Obviously, even one accident will make headlines around the world,” Musk added. “So we better take a cautious approach here.”
Musk also said he expects Tesla to operate robotaxis in 8-10 new states by the end of the year, excluding no regulatory problems. He named Nevada, Florida and Arizona as such future markets. It's unclear how many Tesla robo-taxis are operating in Austin; the latest figure the company reported to government officials was about 20. Tesla's robotaxis in Austin have logged “more than a quarter of a million miles” and its vehicles in San Francisco have traveled “more than a million,” said Ashok Elluswamy, vice president of artificial intelligence software.
Tesla will have safety monitors in the cars it produces in new markets, Musk explained. “Even if regulators didn’t force us to do it, we would still do it as the right and prudent approach to a new market.”
Previously, Musk predicted that Tesla would have robotaxis available to “50 percent” of the US population by the end of the year, and that Tesla customers would be able to upgrade their cars for unattended autonomous driving by the end of 2025.
