Elon Musk interviews CNBC at Tesla headquarters in Texas.
CNBC
Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the company will have a robotaxis in the streets of Austin, Texas, at the end of June.
In an interview with David Faber de CNBC Tuesday at the company’s headquarters in Austin, Musk said Tesla aims to bring her robotax to Los Angeles and San Francisco after Austin’s planned beginnings.
Musk said that a Tesla Robotaxi service will start with around 10 vehicles in Austin and will quickly extend to thousands of vehicles if the launch goes well without incidents.
Since 2016, Musk promises investors, customers and Tesla fans that the company is approximately a year of the delivery of an autonomous car capable of transporting passengers safely without human interventions, or a human behind the wheel. However, Tesla does not yet offer a safe vehicle to use without human supervision.
“It is prudent for us to start with a small number, to confirm that things are going well, then to make it evolve,” said Musk.
To begin with, Tesla said that its Robotaxis will be model vehicles equipped with an upcoming version of FSD (self-clarified entirely known under the name of not supervised FSD.
Alphabet Waymo is currently operating commercial and driver -free services in various American markets. During a recent call for results, Alphabet said Waymo already made 250,000 trips paid per week.
Musk said Tesla “Will Geofence” her Robotaxie in Austin begins, which means that the company will limit where these model vehicles can drive. But there will be no human safety driver in cars, promised Musk.
Tesla employees will remotely monitor the fleet, he said.
“We will look at what the cars do very carefully and as confidence is developing, the less necessary,” said Musk.
Musk previously said that the “generalized” approach from Tesla to Robotaxie was more ambitious than that of Waymo. Tesla relies on camera -based systems and computer vision mainly instead of using sophisticated sensors, including Lidar and radar in its vehicles.
Musk said these sensors were expensive and could hinder Robotaxi production at high volume and scal up a world fleet.
“What will work best for the road system is artificial intelligence, digital neuronal nets and cameras,” Musk said on Tuesday.
Faber has pressed Musk on the political counterpoup that Tesla was faced in response to her involvement with the administration of President Donald Trump and in German politics. Tesla saw a drop in sales of electric vehicles, including a 20% drop in car income in the first quarter of 2025.
Musk awarded the drop in sales to the company which must reorganize its factories to start the production of a refreshed version of its most popular car, the Y model.
“We cannot make cars if the factories are re -based. But we have seen a major rebound on demand at this stage,” said Musk, without providing figures. “When you buy a product, how much do you care about the political opinions of the CEO or even what they are?”
While staying at the head of Tesla and also directing Spacex and Xai, Musk is a key advisor to President Trump after spending nearly $ 300 million to propel him to the White House.
Musk founded the “Department of Effectiveness of the Government” or Doge, which has made radical changes to Washington with an oblique bar campaign with intestinal agencies and to serve federal labor. President Donald Trump supported the cuts led by musks.
Musk’s assets in Tesla and SpaceX make him the richest individual in the world with a net value estimated at around $ 376 billion today, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire index.
Earlier Tuesday, Musk said he was determined to lead Tesla for the next five years.
“Yes, without a doubt at all,” Musk said in an interview with the Bloomberg Qatar Economic Forum in Doha.
