According to a report from The Information, Tesla is getting ready to launch its autonomous Cybercab service in Austin, Texas, by the end of this month. However, this is an internal target, and there are indications Tesla might miss it.
The interesting bit about Tesla’s Cybercab service is that the vehicles don’t have any pedals or a steering wheel, which in turn means that the cars are entirely reliant on autonomous driving software. Which means there’s no failsafe if something happens to the software or even the hardware inside the vehicle. Or at least that’s how it seems.
Tesla’s report claims that its cars accumulated 380,000 driverless miles across all of its Robotaxi hubs, which isn’t much. Waymo, for reference, has accumulated 220 million miles since 2020.
Additionally, the registered Robotaxi vehicles in Austin are only 186, while the unsupervised vehicles have fallen from 25 to 17 this July, and this just isn’t enough to launch a full-scale driverless taxi service.
There is some effort from Tesla, at least, as the company has completed an emergency training with Austin first responders on how to move the vehicle out of the way when needed. Tesla also assures that all Robotaxis are constantly monitored and a human is always ready to take over a vehicle remotely if needed. The carmaker has also been offering rides to its own employees on campus.
The report suggests that Tesla isn’t actually planning a full-scale launch of its Cybercab fleet, but more of a soft launch in which the company will offer rides to its own employees, but on public roads. Perhaps that’s why the official Tesla Robotaxi account on X is inviting people to get a free test ride on August 23 before the unscheduled so-called Cybercab launch event.
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