Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been promising a self-driving vehicle for years — and missed those targets for years. However, the time has arrived for him to make good on his word, he says, and the first set of driverless Teslas will be delivered in June.
Tesla’s readying to produce its first round of driverless Model Y SUVs to be delivered to customers in June.
The initial launch will start with as many as 20 Model Y SUVs. The target number is much higher.
“For the past several days, Tesla has been testing self-driving Model Y cars (no one in driver’s seat) on Austin public streets with no incidents,” Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “A month ahead of schedule. Next month, first self-delivery from factory to customer.”
The automaker reportedly aims to launch its robotaxi service on June 12, according to Bloomberg News.
Ready for primetime?
The automaker has been promising self-driving vehicles for a long time, but only began testing them in recent weeks. This raised concerns among investors and Tesla supporters — and may have played a role in the stock price’s recent drastic decline.
This is not what’s going to be roaming the streets of Austin come late June or early July.
It doesn’t help that Waymo, Tesla’s top competitor in the robotaxi market, tested its vehicles for six months without drivers before launching its robotaxi service in Austin. It was a protocol used in the other locations where it offers the service.
It’s unclear at this point if the first 10 or 20 self-driving Model Ys will go to consumers or be used for the company’s robotaxi venture. At its debut earlier this year, Tesla created a special use vehicle for its robotaxis, which was not the Model Y.
During the company’s first quarter earnings call, Musk said the robotaxi service wouldn’t be ready until late June or early July, giving credence to his contention that it’s “month early.” That said, it’s unlikely it’ll be ready before the first week of July.
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Is it happening?
The base Model Y is available with Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology.
The key thing to remember is that a fully autonomous vehicle — where the driver can essentially take a nap or read a book — is not what we’re talking about. The current wave of “driverless” vehicles employs a variety of safety technologies in the event of a problem.
Although Musk claims there have been no problems with the Austin test fleet, the sample size is relatively small. Other companies, including Waymo, but also Zoox and perhaps most notably Cruise have all run into situations that at a minimum caused traffic delays and at worse, injuries to pedestrians.
Happy investors?
After watching the company’s stock fall significantly, losing half its value in the last month, Musk’s recent proclamation that he’s basically done with his work heading up the Department of Government Efficiency in Washington D.C. and heading back to the Tesla/SpaceX offices spurred a rally.
Musk said he not only will be “spending 24/7” on the job, but also suggested he will invest far less money into politics. He spent billions to back not only President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign but also to support other conservative candidates.
The announcement that about the driverless vehicles has kept the stock up, but not a huge amount. Tesla shares are up less than 1% from yesterday’s close, trading just below $360 a share late in the afternoon session.
While investors appear to be pleased, not everyone else is equally impressed. There’s no sign that Musk’s pullback from politics has eased the backlash he and Tesla have faced in recent months. That, according to many analysts, has resulted in a sharp downturn in sales of the automaker’s EVs. In Europe, Tesla delivered 49% fewer vehicles in April compared to a year earlier. As a result, it fell behind Chinese rival BYD for the first time.
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