Tesla has begun offering employees rides in vehicles running Full Self-Driving software without safety drivers in Austin, as the company nears its goal of removing human operators in the Texas city before year end.
Phil Duan, a senior staff software engineer at Tesla AI and currently the Principal Software Engineer for Autopilot, shared a video on X over the weekend showing a trip inside a Model Y being used for the service.
Tesla has begun offering Robotaxi rides using a fleet of modified Model Ys, while production of the upcoming Cybercab — specifically designed for the service — is scheduled to start in April.
“Along for the ride in unsupervised FSD testing,” Duan wrote on Sunday.
Later on the same day, CEO Elon Musk reacted to Duan’s post by commenting: “Cool 😎.”
This step is part of Tesla’s testing of the fully driverless ride-hailing service, aiming to eliminate human operators by the end of the year in the city where its Robotaxi launched five months ago.
A week earlier, Musk had confirmed that testing was “underway with no occupants in the car,” after several Model Ys were seen driving completely empty.
The company has now progressed towards testing with potential clients inside the vehicle.
Autonomy Push
As Tesla pushes forward with its autonomous service rollout, the company is also recruiting factory workers and sales staff to serve as operators, offering extra hours and benefits.
Business Insider reported on Sunday that this information comes from posters spotted at several Tesla facilities in California earlier this month.
The company plans to expand the service to several states soon — including Florida, Nevada, and Arizona — and to grow its fleet to meet rising demand in existing cities.
Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Percoco wrote last week that the firm expects that Tesla will have 1,000 Robotaxi vehicles in service in 2026, and reach 1 million by 2035 — aligning with the ambitious targets set in Musk’s latest pay package.
Growing Fleet
The company announced a few weeks ago that it would double Austin’s Robotaxi fleet this month, although it remains unclear how many units are currently on the road.
As of Monday, estimates from the website (Tesla) Robotaxi Tracker suggest that the company currently operates 32 vehicles in Austin — one more than a week ago and three more than when the announcement was made.
According to the same website, the Bay Area fleet has 128 vehicles on track.
Business Insider reported that on Sunday that, according to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), Tesla has registered 1,655 vehicles for its ride-hailing service in the state — a huge increase from the 28 vehicles and 128 safety drivers reported at launch.
While it’s possible to estimate the number of vehicles operating in the Bay Area, Tesla is not required to provide these figures to authorities in Austin, a spokesperson for the city’s transportation department told the media outlet.
Over the weekend, a power outage in San Francisco caused competitor Waymo‘s driverless vehicles to halt their service, as traffic lights went dark.
However, according to multiple reports on social media, Tesla‘s ride-hailing service continued to operate without interruption.
“Tesla Robotaxis were unaffected by the SF power outage,” Musk confirmed later on X.
As of press time, Tesla‘s shares were trading 1.4% higher at $488 on Monday’s pre-market session.
Last Wednesday, the stock hit a new all-time high of $495.28 per share, before closing at $467.
Previously, Tesla‘s record was $488.54 in mid-December 2024.
After that peak, the stock fell by more than 50% by April this year, but it has been steadily recovering since then.
Over the past 30 days, Tesla’s stock rose 15%.
