To many observers, Elon Musk revealed Tesla’s crazy plan to roll out a robotaxi service in Austin, Texas this year. The service will start with a fleet of Model Y vehicles. In a short interview with CNBC’s David Faber, Musk dropped some thrilling Tesla bombshells straight from the company’s Palo Alto HQ. The company will use geofencing to restrict the areas in which autonomous vehicles can operate, providing a controlled and safe deployment.
The arrival of the geofencing feature will empower Tesla to track and restrict the exact paths that the robotaxis can take. This precautionary measure is meant to protect public safety while the company collects data on the vehicle’s performance in real-world conditions. As an indicator of just how advanced Musk believes this service will be, there won’t be any human safety drivers in the cars. This is a huge step forward on the road to completely autonomous transportation.
At first, the robotaxi service will launch with around a dozen vehicles in Austin. If the launch is successful and goes off without a hitch, Musk wants to quickly expand the operation to have thousands of robotaxis. After the Austin debut, Tesla plans to roll out its service to other top markets, including Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Musk’s announcement comes at a time when competition in the driverless ride-hailing market is increasingly heating up. Alphabet’s Waymo currently leads the industry with commercial driverless ride-hailing services operating in various U.S. markets, conducting around 250,000 paid trips each week. This highly competitive environment reinforces the thesis behind Tesla’s careful timing in pursuing an AV rollout of their own.
Since 2016, Musk has relentlessly marketed the promise of a self-driving car. He regularly hypes investors and customers alike into believing that Tesla is on the verge of a breakthrough with its autonomous driving tech. Their design is focused on getting people from point A to point B safely without a human in the loop.
This was Tesla’s overarching philosophy in their original approach to safety, and it remains as they enter wider autonomous waters.
“We’ll be watching what the cars are doing very carefully and as confidence grows, less of that will be needed.”
As that launch date approaches, though, all of the world’s eyes will be on Austin to see how well Tesla’s robotaxi initiative goes. This pilot program could serve as a bridgehead for future expansions into additional urban areas. It has the ability to ruin transportation with rampant autonomous solutions.
As the launch date approaches, all eyes will be on Austin to see how Tesla’s robotaxi initiative unfolds. The success of this pilot program could set a precedent for future expansions into other urban areas, potentially revolutionizing transportation with autonomous solutions.