Tesla began sending invitations to major influencers on Friday for its first Robotaxi rides, which are scheduled to start this Sunday in Austin, Texas.
Multiple Tesla enthusiasts and investors, such as SawyerMerritt and WholeMarsBlog, shared on X a screenshot of the email received early on Friday.
According to the email, the service will be available through a dedicated Robotaxi app and will run between 6 a.m. and 12 p.m. every day of the week.
The app will feature a map of the geofenced area where invitees may request a ride — which will not include airports.
Only invitees can download and use the Robotaxi app during this phase, however, they can bring an additional passenger, provided that they’re 18+ years old.
According to the parameters of use provided by Tesla, the ride-hailing service “may be limited or unavailable in the event of inclement weather.”
Furthermore, during an active ride, the cabin camera will not be used unless a request for support is initiated by the passenger or in case of an emergency.
The rides will be paid, as intended with the service. The company requests that invitees have a debit or credit card on file.
Additionally, Tesla says that “all charges for rides are shown in the Robotaxi app” and may include applicable tolls, fees, regulatory charges, “and similar costs in connection with the ride.”
The ride-hailing service is scheduled to be launched “tentatively” on June 22 in Austin, according to CEO Elon Musk.
However, Musk stated that Tesla is “being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift.”
The first Tesla vehicle “that drives itself from factory end of line all the way to a customer house is June 28,” he added.
Last week, a driverless Model Y was spotted testing in Austin ahead of the official launch.
Musk had mentioned these tests in late May, when he said, “For the past several days, Tesla has been testing self-driving Model Y cars (no one in the driver’s seat) on Austin public streets with no incidents.”
He noted then that the milestone came “a month ahead of schedule.”
While the unsupervised Full Self Driving (FSD) is nearing release in the United States, the company is still battling for regulatory approval for the supervised version in Europe.
Earlier this week, Tesla‘s vehicles were considered the most American-made vehicles, placing on the top four positions of the updated Index conducted by Cars.com. The Model 3 sedan took first place, outperforming the Model Y SUV.
The company is currently trading 1.3% higher at $326 on Friday’s pre-market session. In the past twelve months, the stock surged 77.4%.
