Tesla Inc. on Sunday rolled out its first robotaxi service in a U.S. city, a key part of Chief Executive Elon Musk's ambitious plans for autonomous vehicles - a subject on which he's been known to overstate goals and stretch timelines and sometimes the limits of credulity.
The electric-vehicle maker had been widely expected to launch the program in Austin, Texas, earlier this month, but Musk announced the new date in a recent post on X, saying Tesla $(TSLA)$ executives were being "super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift." Another delay could have spelled steep declines for the stock.
The launch caps a decade of Musk's promises around autonomous-vehicle technology.
In a pair of wide-ranging interviews last month, Musk said that the service would at first be restricted, or geofenced, to certain areas of Austin and would start with only about 10 vehicles. It would ramp up to about 1,000 vehicles and become available in other U.S. cities in the next few months, he said.
The program will use regular Tesla Model Y vehicles equipped with cameras and sensors. The fully autonomous Cybercab, unveiled last year, is still under development. "These are unmodified Tesla cars coming straight from the factory," Musk tweeted recently.
He went on to reaffirm plans to have 1 million self-driving Tesla vehicles on roads by the end of next year, a business model he has likened to a combination of Uber Technologies Inc. $(UBER)$ and Airbnb Inc. $(ABNB)$.
Musk made similar claims in 2019, saying there would be 1 million autonomous vehicles on the roads by 2020.
Still, many say that AV technology, along with humanoid robots, is what makes them view Tesla as a tech company rather than simply a carmaker - and value it accordingly.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, a known Tesla bull, called the start of the services the beginning of "the golden era of autonomous for Tesla."
The "autonomous chapter as one of the most important for Musk and Tesla in its history as a company," Ives said. "The [artificial-intelligence] future at Tesla is worth $1 trillion to the valuation alone over the next few years."
After a very public falling-out between Musk and President Donald Trump earlier this month sent Tesla shares reeling, Musk has attempted to make amends.
Wall Street regards proximity to the Trump administration as an ace up Tesla's sleeve when it comes to autonomous-vehicle regulations and ongoing federal investigation into accidents and incidents involving Tesla's advanced driver-assistance systems.
Tesla shares have been on a wild ride this month and are down nearly 8%. So far this year, the stock has lost about 21%, contrasting with gains of around 1.5% for the S&P 500 index.
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