(Bloomberg) — Tesla Inc. rolled out its long-promised driverless taxi service to a handful of riders Sunday, a modest debut for what Elon Musk sees as a transformative new business line.
Most Read from Bloomberg
The first robotaxi trips were limited to a narrow portion of Tesla’s hometown of Austin, with an employee in each vehicle keeping tabs on the operations. The carmaker hand-picked a friendly crop of initial riders, which featured investors and social-media influencers who live-streamed their trips.
In one video, Herbert Ong, who runs a fan account, marveled over the speed of the vehicle and the ability to park autonomously. Another influencer with the @BLKMDL3 handle on X said the trip was “smoother than a human driver.” Sawyer Merritt, a Tesla investor who runs an account focused on the company, called the experience “awesome.”
With no kickoff event and little in the way of formal announcements, Tesla has relied largely on word of mouth and media coverage ahead of the robotaxi launch, which comes about a decade after Musk began talking about the possibility. The unveiling was uncharacteristically low-key for a company that held a “Cyber Rodeo” to mark a Texas factory opening in 2022 and an invite-only party near Hollywood last year to unveil autonomous products.
Musk is reorienting the carmaker around hyped-but-still-unproven technologies including self-driving vehicles and humanoid robots. Some investors are counting on new markets to revive Tesla following a sales slump and consumer backlash against the chief executive officer. Its shares have tumbled 20% this year.
“Robotaxis are critical to the Tesla investment case,” Tom Narayan, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said in a note. About 60% of Narayan’s valuation for the shares is attributable to the self-driving vehicles.
The videos of the robotaxi launch posted Sunday were largely mundane, showing Model Y SUVs driving short distances, navigating intersections, avoiding pedestrians and parking — albeit with no one sitting in the driver’s seat. There were some hiccups, like when one streamer tested a button to have the vehicle pull over and it instead briefly stopped in the middle of a road before the vehicle began moving again.
The first riders are being charged a flat rate of $4.20 per trip, Musk said Sunday, though it’s unclear what pricing will look like longer term. Robotaxis will be available between 6 a.m. and midnight daily within a geofenced area of the city, not including the airport, according to terms of use that some early riders posted. Service may be limited or unavailable in foul weather.
