As with all Elon Musk promises, we should take it with a grain of salt. Elon Musk announced that the Tesla Robotaxi Service will be launched next year in 2020, despite history showing that he has made other similar announcements that never came to pass, so it remains to be seen. Musk tends to set aggressive timelines, which he rarely meets, or water down his goals at best.

For instance, he once announced his goal to have 1 million fully autonomous “robotaxis” on the road by 2020, which has not been a possibility. Based on this history, more caution should be exercised about the timeline and realism of the upcoming Tesla Robotaxi service.

Regulatory Landscape

Currently, the states that are friendly on the regulation front towards the testing and implementation of autonomous vehicles include Texas. Several companies that deal with self-driving cars are falling for the state’s relaxed laws, making certain states like Austin hubs for such business. Still, objections from citizens and safety-conscious people have made people start debating the need to come up with more safety measures and measures to be taken to report on these self-driving cars.

Austin is now one of the most active cities in terms of the development of automobile projects. Uber has signed a deal with Alphabet’s Waymo to provide self-driving cars in the city to consumers. Such integration lets Uber clients request Waymo’s autonomous cars, which helps to increase the accessibility of self-driving vehicles. This also raises the competition levels and affirms that Austin is already proving to be the proving ground of innovations in the field of autonomous mobility. ​

Safety and Public Perception

From the use of automated vehicles, there are some issues of concern about safety and acceptance among the public. Tesla Manufacturing has assured that it will focus on any arising challenges as it begins with the first test drive project within Austin to avoid imminent accidents that could affect passengers and other road users. The adoption of this service will depend on the general views of the people, and Tesla will be required to convince the public that their robotaxi is safe and effective in its operation.

However, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) has revolved around safety issues, thus raising concerns about its safety. Specifically, the risk involved in the current version of FSD (v13.2.4) became evident when the Cybertruck could not identify a lane change consistently and struck a pole. Fortunately, nobody was hurt in the accident, although it revealed that even Tesla’s system is not perfect.

More sadly, one car accident involved a Tesla model that resulted in the death of 4 individuals who were trapped in the car after the door failed to open. Such occurrences raise questions about the viability of Tesla’s Robotaxis to function safely with no supervision from humans. If Tesla were to seek public acceptance of FSD, it needs to demonstrate how it performs in real-life scenarios and emergencies without causing accidents.