Tesla will launch a robotaxi service in Austin , Texas, in June , which will be based on fully autonomous vehicles , without driver supervision .
The vehicles will be part of a Tesla-owned fleet and will not be customers' personal vehicles. The fully autonomous cars will be available for paid trips, without a driver.
For the past few years, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been talking about the imminent arrival of fully autonomous vehicles , but he has yet to release them. Now he hopes to do so in the next five to six months.
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In its letter to shareholders, Tesla said that since January, its customers have collectively driven more than 3 billion miles using the company's self-driving system, Full Self-Driving (Supervised). Tesla says FSD (Supervised) is a precursor to fully autonomous vehicles, but the company warns customers to continue to pay attention to the road, as the system does not make the vehicle autonomous.
The company recently released video of dozens of Model 3 and Model Y vehicles driving “without human intervention” a 1.2-mile route onTesla’s private, closed factory roads. There is no driver inside the vehicles, not even in case of an emergency. Musk said Tesla’s unmanned vehicles will soon operate similarly at its Texas factory.
Bloomberg previously reported that Tesla was in talks with Austin's autonomous vehicle task force about launching a robotaxi service in Texas.
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To launch fully autonomous vehicles as a robotaxi service, Tesla needs to do a lot of testing. Overall, Tesla’s approach to autonomous driving differs significantly from most other companies. The automaker uses only cameras to power its vehicle’s perception system, which some say is not enough. The company also selectively publishes safety statistics and has been criticized for lacking detail. At the same time, the existing FSD (Supervised) faces some issues and shortcomings. It struggles with wet roads and sunlight reflection. It sometimes fails to recognize motorcyclists. Recently, a 28-year-old motorcycle owner was killed by a Model S driver who was using the driver-assist feature.
However, Tesla has been testing a robotaxi service with employees in the Bay Area since last year. The vehicles have safety drivers behind the wheel who are ready to intervene if something goes wrong. Elon Musk has said he expects to open a paid service in California and Texas by 2025, pending regulatory approval.
The billionaire says he is confident that Tesla will roll out vehicles with unattended FSD in California and other parts of the US by 2025.
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If Tesla does launch a robotaxi service, it would revolutionize the transportation industry, while also benefiting the environment through electric mobility. Several companies are offering robotaxi services. It will be interesting to see how this technology develops and becomes integrated into our daily lives in the coming years. Rather than being limited to city centers, Tesla’s robotaxi services could potentially expand to suburban and rural areas, providing even greater accessibility for passengers. This could lead to a shift away from personal car ownership towards the use of autonomous vehicles as the primary mode of transportation.
Source: www.theverge.com
