Tesla said on Wednesday that an early version of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) ride-hailing service is now operational for employees in Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area, marking the first tangible step toward its plan to launch fully autonomous paid rides this summer.
The company shared the update in a post on X, noting that the service has already completed more than 1,500 trips and over 15,000 miles of driving.
“This service helps us develop & validate FSD networks, the mobile app, vehicle allocation, mission control & remote assistance operations,” the company said in the post.
Here’s the video shared by Tesla on X amid the announcement.
The announcement follows Tesla’s first-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, during which CEO Elon Musk reiterated plans to officially roll out the autonomous ride service in June, starting in Austin with “maybe 10 or 20″ Model Ys “on day one.”
“The Teslas that will be fully autonomous in June in Austin are probably Model Ys. So, that is currently on track to be able to do paid rides fully autonomously in Austin in June,” he said, adding that they plan “to be in many other cities in the US by the end of this year.”
Mass production of the Cybercab, a two-door vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals, is not expected to begin until 2026. Tesla has previously said it will be priced below $30,000.
During the call, Musk told investors the service will expand beyond Austin to “many other cities in the US by the end of this year,” and said he expects a rapid scale-up over the summer.
“By the end of June or July, you can just go to Austin and order a Tesla for autonomous drive,” Musk said. “It’s very difficult to predict the exact ramp sort of week by week and month by month except that it will ramp up very quickly.”
The company reaffirmed its timeline earlier this year after showcasing the Cybercab to representatives from the Texas Department of Transportation. In a post last month, Tesla wrote, “The future is autonomous & it starts in Austin, this June.”
Travis Axelrod, Tesla‘s Head of Investor Relations, stated on the call that the company has their “first big [Cybercab] builds coming at the end of this quarter,” adding that “in the coming months, we start to large scale installation of all the equipment in Giga Texas still on schedule for production next year.”
Elon Musk stated on Tuesday’s earnings call that “probably around the middle of next year” the autonomous rides in Austin will “move the financial needle” and “go exponential from there.”
