Tesla began its ride-hailing tests this week in Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area, the first step toward its initial planned commercial robotaxi launch in June 2025.
A Wednesday post on X told workers, “FSD Supervised ride-hailing service is live for an early set of employees in Austin & San Francisco Bay Area.”
FSD Supervised ride-hailing service is live for an early set of employees in Austin & San Francisco Bay Area.
We've completed over 1.5k trips & 15k miles of driving.
This service helps us develop & validate FSD networks, the mobile app, vehicle allocation, mission control &… pic.twitter.com/pYVfhi935W
— Tesla AI (@Tesla_AI) April 23, 2025
Staff can now request cars through a new phone app, ride routes, and report their experience before the public debut.
FSD, short for “Full Self-Driving,” is Tesla’s driver-assistance package that can steer, brake, and accelerate but still instructs drivers to keep their hands on the wheel. The option, costing subscribers $199 a month, is already active in thousands of privately owned cars.
What is new is the “Robotaxi” platform, which was built so people who do not own a Tesla can order rides.
The pilot cars are Tesla’s Model 3 sedans
The pilot cars are sedans with a rear touch screen for estimated arrival time, cabin temperature, music, and an emergency stop button. Tesla’s promotional clip adds a cautionary banner: “Safety driver is present to supervise and only intervene as necessary. FSD (Supervised) does not make the vehicle autonomous.”
On Tuesday’s earnings call, chief executive Elon Musk said Austin riders should see “10 to 20 vehicles on day one.” He gave no fare details or revenue targets but confirmed trips will be booked through the standalone app, which was first shown to investors last year.
Starting trials with staff members is similar to Waymo’s playbook; it runs employee-only programs in each new location before opening spots to selected members of the public. Waymo’s internal phase usually lasts several months. Tesla’s schedule, however, appears to be more compressed. The pilot is beginning only weeks before the target launch.
Musk predicted in January that Austin would open without a human driver, using an “unsupervised” FSD build, and promised that the software would be available to California owners later this year. For now, Tesla still keeps a safety operator in every test car and holds only a DMV permit that allows autonomous testing with someone behind the wheel in California.
Executives added that existing cars, not the steering-wheel-free “Cybercab” prototype revealed last year, will handle the first rides. They did not say when the minimalist vehicle might appear on public streets.
Tesla hasn’t secured testing licenses in California yet
California demands separate driverless testing and deployment licenses from both the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Public Utilities Commission before companies may sell rides. Tesla has secured neither.
Texas rules are looser, but Austin officials have been discussing pickup zones, curb management, insurance coverage, and emergency-response protocols with the automaker.
Last month, California regulators let Tesla carry passengers in trials, though only employees were permitted, and a driver was still required. Further driverless approvals could take years.
Waymo already offers fully driverless trips in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and parts of Austin. Cruise paused its Austin service after an October crash in San Francisco.
Tesla has not said who will get first public access, how much rides will cost, how far the service area will reach, or whether privately owned cars can join the paid network. Musk again touted the long-held idea of idle personal vehicles earning money but provided no fresh timeline.
Employees riding this week are expected to grade every trip and report their experience, data that Tesla will feed into its neural network training pipeline. The company says those insights, plus millions of real-world miles collected from customer cars, will allow quick software updates between now and launch day.
The summer rollout is also important for Tesla’s finances; after two straight quarters of shrinking margins and slower electric vehicle sales, management is banking on new revenue from autonomous services to reassure investors.
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