Tesla’s robotaxi is live: here are some of the first reactions.

A conveyance Tesla is utilizing for robotaxi investigating purposes connected Oltorf Street successful Austin, Texas, US, connected Sunday, June 22, 2025.

Tesla yet did the damn thing. The institution launched its hotly anticipated robotaxi service successful Austin, Texas, connected Sunday, June 22nd — and we’re present starting to spot immoderate of the archetypal reactions rotation in.

But first, we person to get a fewer important caveats retired of the way. Tellingly, the work is not unfastened to the wide public, nor is it wholly “unsupervised,” as Elon Musk erstwhile promised. The vehicles volition see Tesla-employed “safety monitors” successful the beforehand rider seat who tin respond to a unsafe concern by hitting a termination switch. Other autonomous conveyance operators would spot information monitors successful the operator oregon rider seats, but typically lone during the investigating phase. Tesla is unsocial successful its usage of information monitors during commercialized service.

The rides are constricted to a geofenced country of the metropolis that has been thoroughly mapped by the company. And successful immoderate cases, Tesla is utilizing pursuit cars and distant drivers arsenic further backup. (Some vehicles person been spotted without pursuit vehicles.)

The work is invitation lone astatine launch, according to Tesla’s website. A fig of pro-Tesla influencers person received invites, which should rise questions astir however unbiased these archetypal captious reactions volition be. Tesla hasn’t said erstwhile the work volition beryllium disposable to the wide public.

The constricted proceedings includes 10-20 Model Y vehicles with “Robotaxi” branding connected the side. The afloat autonomous Cybercab that was archetypal revealed past twelvemonth won’t beryllium disposable until 2026 astatine the earliest. The work operates successful a small, comparatively harmless country of Austin from 6AM to 12AM, avoiding atrocious weather, highways, airports, and analyzable intersections.

Despite those hours, the robotaxi work seems to person gotten disconnected to a dilatory start. Several invitees had yet to person the robotaxi app by 1PM ET connected Sunday. Sawyer Merritt, who posts pro-Tesla contented connected X, said helium saw 30 Waymo vehicles spell by portion waiting for Tesla’s robotaxi work to start. Musk posted astatine 1:12PM that the work would beryllium disposable aboriginal that afternoon, adding that archetypal customers would wage a “flat fee” of $4.20 for rides — a weed gag with which Musk has a troubled history.

While riders waited, the institution published a caller robotaxi leafage to its website detailing a batch of the rules and guidelines of the service. Visitors are invited to motion up for updates astir erstwhile Tesla’s robotaxi work whitethorn travel to their area. (Musk has said determination could beryllium up to a 1000 robotaxis connected the roadworthy “in a fewer months.”)

After yet being granted entree to the app, Merritt posted an representation of the work country map, which appeared to screen a tiny country bordered by the Colorado River to the north, Highway 183 to the east, Highways 290 and 71 to the south, and Zilker Part to the west.

And past the rides began — and they appeared to beryllium mostly uneventful. Several invitees livestreamed themselves summoning their archetypal cars, interacting with the UI, and past arriving astatine their destination. Several videos lasted hours, arsenic the invitees would reason a travel and past hail different car instantly after. One tester, Bearded Tesla Guy, described the app’s interface arsenic “basically Uber.” Many had immoderate trouble uncovering the pickup determination of their waiting Tesla robotaxi.

“This is similar Pokemon hunting,” 1 idiosyncratic connected Herbert Ong’s livestream said, “but its robotaxi hunting.”

Once inside, the Tesla-employed information show would inquire the riders to amusement their robotaxi apps to beryllium their identities. Otherwise the information monitors kept soundless passim the ride, contempt riders trying to get them to talk. I’m assuming that Tesla volition request to travel up with immoderate different mode to place their riders if they program connected removing the information monitors from the rider seat. Waymo, for example, asks customers to unlock their conveyance done the ridehail app.

The rear surface instructs the riders to fasten their seatbelts, and aft pressing an animated “start ride” button, the conveyance gets underway. Riders tin besides commencement the thrust from a akin fastener successful the app. Since riders are registering for the robotaxi app utilizing their preexisting Tesla profiles, they’re greeted with their preferred euphony apps connected the rear surface with each their playlists and saved tracks.

The beforehand show shows a visualization akin to user vehicles utilizing Tesla’s Full Self-Driving diagnostic — adjacent though Musk had said the robotaxis are moving connected a peculiar mentation of FSD that’s not disposable to the mean Tesla owner. There are “pull over,” “stop successful lane,” oregon “support” buttons connected the halfway display. Another tester, Chuck Cook, said the visualization lacked immoderate of the controls that a mean Tesla mightiness have.

Pressing the enactment fastener places the rider successful a queue arsenic they hold for the distant relation to connect. On Cook’s livestream, it took astir 2 minutes earlier an relation yet connected. “We admit you calling in,” the relation said (though the cellular transportation was poor). “We’re present for immoderate issues to enactment your ride.”

Throughout the assorted trips, the robotaxis encountered a bevy of mean situations, similar U-turns, velocity bumps, pedestrians, construction, and more. The vehicles maintained speeds of astir 40 mph oregon slower. Common words to picture the thrust was “smooth,” “great,” and “normal.” One tester said connected X that they got the robotaxi to “mess up” successful a mode that required the distant relation to assistance retired — though they declined to picture it arsenic a disengagement.

Ashok Elluswamy, the caput of the company’s self-driving team, posted a photograph of respective twelve radical successful a country with 10 ample monitors connected the partition showing unrecorded camera feeds from respective vehicles. “Robotaxi motorboat party,” Elluswamy wrote.

Where Tesla goes from present is the existent challenge. Musk has said helium besides wants to motorboat a robotaxi work successful California, wherever the regulatory process is simply a batch much analyzable than Texas. And adjacent though helium has said helium wants to instrumentality things slow, helium besides claims that Tesla volition person implicit a 1000 driverless vehicles connected the roadworthy “within a fewer months.”

Meanwhile, Waymo is operating much than 1,500 driverless vehicles successful San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin — with plans to grow to Atlanta, Miami, and Washington, DC successful the adjacent future. The Alphabet-owned institution has said it volition grow its fleet to 2,000 vehicles by adjacent year.