Elon Musk declares June 22 as the tentative launch date for Tesla's public Robotaxi service

Elon Musk said Tesla was “tentatively” set to begin providing public robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, on June 22. He added that the date was not set in stone and could change because Tesla was paranoid about safety.

Musk indicated on June 11 that he was flying from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas, for the kickoff of the Robotaxi launch, which he previously predicted would occur sometime on June 12. However, he said the current plan was for June 22 and that the first driverless trip from the Tesla factory to a customer’s house would take place on his birthday, June 28.

In May, Musk said that Tesla would launch its robotaxi service with around 10 vehicles in the first week before increasing it to 20, 30, or 40, and eventually thousands within a few months. He also plans to expand the robotaxi service to other cities, like San Francisco and San Antonio, although he has not provided a detailed timeline. However, the tech billionaire pointed out that the streets will change rapidly, and autonomous cars will be standard worldwide in two to three years.

Musk says robotaxis will initially be ‘geo-fenced’ and remotely monitored

BREAKING: First ever Tesla Model Y robotaxi with no-one in the drivers seat spotted testing on public roads in Austin, Texas!

Tesla's new "Robotaxi" wordmark/logo is on the side of the vehicle. https://t.co/IhEzPx5PIb pic.twitter.com/zq4ZmiMqDg

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 10, 2025

Musk said Tesla would “geofence” the service, limiting where the Model Y robotaxis could initially operate, and that employees would remotely monitor the fleet. He recently disclosed that Tesla will start with a very small rollout of robotaxis that will be fitted with a new “unsupervised” version of the company’s FSD or “Full Self-Driving” technology installed. The tests will involve the Model Y, not the futuristic-looking CyberCab that Tesla plans to produce next year.

He shared a video showing that Tesla was testing driverless vehicles on the roads of Austin without a human safety supervisor behind the wheel. The eight-second clip showed the latest version of the Model Y SUV, painted black with a white/gold “Robotaxi” graffiti-style logo painted on it, navigating an intersection and pausing to allow pedestrians to pass over a crosswalk.

“We are being super paranoid about safety.”

–Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla

The company has been testing self-driving Model Y SUVs that will be used in the initial phase of the operation. Model Ys with manufacturer plates and a person behind the wheel have been spotted driving around parts of Austin, including South Congress. However, it is unclear who will be the first users of the Robotaxi service, what app will be used, or how much rides will cost.

Tesla gears up to compete against Waymo in Austin

Musk suggested that Austin was a better city than Los Angeles to start its robotaxi service, although he did not specify why Austin was preferable. However, Texas generally has fewer regulations around autonomous vehicles and is far less dense than Los Angeles, with about a quarter of the population of the southern California city.

Austin has become a sort of battleground for robotaxis, with Waymo offering autonomous rides through the Uber platform since March. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said during the first-quarter earnings call in May that a fleet of about 100 Waymo robotaxis was busier than over 99% of all drivers in Austin in terms of complete daily trips. The California Public Utilities Commission data revealed that Waymo provided more than 5 million rides in three years. Waymo also increased the number of paid rides from about 12K in August 2023 to over 708K in March 2025.

Musk said that the ramp-up for Tesla’s robotaxi service will be quick, adding that there will “probably” be 1,000 robotaxis within a few months. He also predicted that more than one million self-driving Teslas could be in the U.S. by the end of 2026. 

However, Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein previously said Musk’s 2026 guidance was “a bit optimistic,” pointing out that the billionaire investor often missed his own deadlines. Goldstein believed that Tesla would “get there” eventually but stressed that their FSD software would likely take more iterations than the Tesla team anticipated once they started testing the real robotaxi service.

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