Elon Musk excited investors in July by announcing that they would launch a robotaxi service in the San Francisco Bay Area “within one or two months.” However, in reality, Tesla had not applied for the necessary permits and was only planning limited tests with chauffeured vehicles for invited passengers.
According to emails obtained by Reuters, these announcements caused confusion and concern among California and federal regulators. Officials emphasized that Tesla’s use of the term “robotaxi” for vehicles with human drivers instead of true self-driving services created a misleading public perception.
Although Musk has been saying for years that the revolution of fully autonomous driving and robotaxi will come “very soon,” so far only a small-scale test in Austin has been implemented.
Nevertheless, a large part of Tesla’s market capitalization, exceeding $1 trillion, is based on this promise. Experts note that while Musk sells his robotaxi vision to investors, he interprets the same concept flexibly towards regulators: “They use the robotaxi concept for marketing but avoid taking legal responsibility.” Tesla plans to expand its service to states with more lenient regulations, such as Florida, Nevada, and Arizona. However, the San Francisco example once again highlighted the gap between the company’s self-driving car goal and regulations.
