April 24 - Tesla (TSLA, Financial) has kicked off early testing of its supervised robotaxi program with select employees in Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area, ahead of a broader rollout targeted for summer 2025.
The company said the Full Self-Driving (FSD) ride-hailing service has already logged over 1,500 trips and more than 15,000 miles, noting the test is currently limited to internal users. While the FSD system is marketed as "Full Self-Driving," it still requires active driver supervision, with hands remaining on the wheel at all times.
Tesla's move intensifies competition in the expanding U.S. autonomous ride-hailing market. Waymo, operated by Alphabet (GOOG, Financial), has already made inroads in Austin, capturing 20% of Uber Technologies' (UBER, Financial) local rideshare activity during the final week of March.
Other challengers include Amazon's (AMZN, Financial) self-driving arm Zoox, as well as Chinese firms Baidu (BIDU, Financial), WeRide (WRD, Financial), and Pony AI (PONY, Financial), which are ramping up robotaxi operations globally.
Tesla did not disclose when it plans to open the service to the public, though a wider rollout is expected later next year.
