Image: Joe Tegtmeyer
Tesla has finally launched its driverless ride-hailing car service on public roads in Austin, Texas, with invited guests giving us a glimpse into the service, and sharing their experience on X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk.
One of those guests, Joe Tegtmeyer, an Austin-based professional drone pilot and Tesla enthusiast, shared the user interface of the app when a booking was made for his first ride in the Robotaxi.
Similar to other ridesharing apps, it asked Tegtmeyer about the destination and the standard flat fee of $US4.20 to take the service.
After entering the drop-off location to a local botanical garden, it showed that the Robotaxi was 7 minutes away from giving him a ride.
It also showed the registration plate for the Robotaxi, which was a grey 2025 Tesla Model Y. The app also shows tips on how to open the door and get in once the car arrives at the pickup spot, which in this ride was near South Congress in Austin.
Once the car arrives at the pickup location, passengers can get in and put their seat belts on before confirming the drop-off location on the rear passenger screen.
Starting the trip is as easy as tapping “Start Ride” on this screen, and the car shifts to drive and starts to autonomously navigate its way to the destination.
The trip then lasted for about 15 minutes before the car arrived at its destination with zero interventions by the operating supervisor.
Just before pulling up, the rear passenger screen says: “Make sure to gather your belongings”.
Once the car has arrived at the destination, the screen changes to ask passengers if they want to open the boot or contact support.
Along with that, the screen also shows instructions on how to open the door to exit the vehicle.
It is is a major milestone in Tesla’s roadmap to roll out fully autonomous vehicles using its self-developed FSD software.
It comes just over 8 months since the We Robot event, where the next generation Robotaxi, the Cybercab, was first unveiled, and attendees were given rides around Warner Brothers studios in California.
Given the experience of the early invited guests to try out the new service, it’s looking quite promising for a broader release in Austin, Texas and potentially parts of California before the end of the year.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.
Polestar breaks down the cradle-to-gate carbon footprint of its Polestar 5 four-door GT - taking…
Tesla ends production of 250 kW supercharging cabinets, and will only produce 500 kW cabinets,…
Iran war highlights how oil has become the Achilles Heel of the global economy. EVs…
We get a test drive of Suzuki's first electric SUV with one variant packing some…
Audi flags release of a new A2 e-tron, a compact electric vehicles (EVs) that the…
Cars, rockets and mining vehicles could drive themselves even when the global positioning system goes…