Watch Out! Driverless Teslas Have Hit The Streets

Tesla EVs without a driver behind the wheel have now been spotted on the road in Austin. The driverless vehicles, which include a Model Y that’s really a disguised prototype of Tesla’s purpose-built robotaxi, are expected to start rides with real customers in the vehicle as soon as June 22. Even wilder, CEO Elon Musk says that there will be vehicles that can drive from the plant to your house before the end of the month.

Nobody Behind The Wheel In Austin

X users spotted Tesla vehicles with nobody behind the wheel earlier this week and posted a video to the social media site. It’s a short clip, but it is enough to show that there is nobody behind the wheel. There are actually two Model Y vehicles, though the clip isn’t clear enough to confirm the presence or absence of a driver in the second car.

Look closely, and you can see a special Robotaxi script on the front door of the lead car. That makes it pretty clear that it’s a self-driving version of Tesla’s vehicles.

The city of Austin’s DMV site lists Tesla as one of the “known AV operators in Austin.” There are five other companies listed, including ADMT (part of Volkswagen) and Waymo. The city site points out that municipalities in Texas cannot regulate EVs, but they are instead covered by State laws passed in 2017 and 2021.

In response to questions on X about the self-driving vehicles, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that public rides were set to start on June 22. He called the date tentative, saying, “We are being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift.”

From Plant To Home By End Of June?

Musk also added, “First Tesla that drives itself from factory end of line all the way to a customer house is June 28.” That would mark a huge leap in self-driving vehicle accomplishment, though said customer would have to be within battery range of the plant. Likely, this would mean an Austin-built model driving to the home of a customer in that city.

Another quick look at the clip shows that the Tesla is already making some of the same mistakes most human drivers make. Like stopping in the middle of an intersection and blocking oncoming traffic because there are pedestrians trying to cross the street. Not cool, Tesla Robotaxi (or the chase car behind).

We don’t know much else about the program at this point. Musk hasn’t said where in Austin the service might work, how many vehicles are involved, or any other important details. Musk has been promising self-driving was just around the corner for nearly a decade now.

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Self-driving rival Waymo has been offering its services to riders in a 37-square-mile section of Austin since last March. That follows its commercial launch to paid riders in San Francisco in 2021 with a safety driver and in March 2022 without. Waymo also offers paid rides in Phoenix, LA, and Miami, with testing currently in several cities in Tokyo.