- Tesla has set a soft date (June 22nd) to launch its Robotaxi service this month.
- The automaker will also show off the first line-to-door delivery of a new Tesla by the end of June.
- Don’t forget that the “affordable” Tesla is also set to debut in the next few weeks.
After months of promises, cryptic posts on X and a mixture of skepticism and anticipation, Tesla has finally set a tentative launch date for its long-awaited Robotaxi service pilot program in Austin, Texas: Sunday, June 22.
The date came straight from the mouth of CEO Elon Musk. Admittedly, Musk’s timelines have been a bit, well, ambitious, to say the least, but with the city of Austin officially recognizing Tesla as an autonomous vehicle operator, it seems that things are finally moving along. And now it’s on the calendar—presumably with permanent market, this time.
Tesla has said that it was targeting a June launch since its end-of-year earnings call in January. Last month, Bloomberg reported that Tesla was tentatively targeting June 12 for launch, which may have been true, but Tesla remained tight-lipped (which is quite un-Tesla).
According to Musk, Tesla is being “super paranoid about safety,” meaning that it could push back the date if it believes it needs a bit more time to smooth things out. In the interim, the automaker says that it will focus on launching the vehicles in a geofenced area of Austin—which is probably a smart move since a top Tesla executive admitted that it’s still lagging behind its closest competitor, Waymo, by “a couple years.”
Tesla has already been piloting the program with Tesla employees. In fact, the very first public sighting of one of Tesla’s driverless Robotaxis happened just yesterday:
Musk also revealed in his post that Tesla is planning to deliver its first fully autonomous, factory-to-door delivery of a Tesla on June 28. This is arguably even wilder news. In an industry where cost savings are paramount, the automaker is getting ready to make even its delivery centers obsolete. That means rolling it off the line and driving itself right to someone’s front door. No delivery truck, no driver, no paperwork hand-off. It kind of feels like some sort of self-driving Roomba that just worked its way home.
I’ll admit, it’s a very cool idea. But besides the technical feasibility of the plan, I can’t help but wonder how Tesla will handle certain liabilities around this delivery method. For example, the brand isn’t exactly known for its tip-top quality control on delivery (a community-sourced pre-delivery checklist for the customer shouldn’t exist). There’s also damage that may occur during transit, or any number of other issues that could occur with an unmanned delivery.
Don’t forget that Tesla is also due to unveil its uber-affordable vehicle this month. The automaker hasn’t exactly said much about this lately, but that could be because its shrouded in the shadow of its big brother, the Robotaxi.
And I’m calling it now: someone is going to make a killing selling those Robotaxi stickers on Etsy. Heck, maybe I’ll start a store myself.
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