Tesla launches ride-hailing service in San Francisco
The Robotaxi service, which was launched in Austin in June, is currently operating with around 20 Model Ys, which are limited to a small part of the city and travel with a ‘safety monitor’ in the passenger seat, while the driver’s seat remains empty, allowing the driver to observe how the car steers on its own. According to media reports, the safety monitor in the passenger seat will have access to a ‘kill switch’ with which it can stop the car in an emergency, although Tesla has not yet publicly confirmed this.
Tesla’s new driving service operating area, which has now been launched in the Bay Area in California, is significantly larger: it includes San Francisco, Berkeley, Hayward, Fremont and San Jose. However, there is a decisive difference to Tesla’s Robotaxi service in Austin: in California, a driver must sit directly in the driver’s seat, who can use the ‘Supervised Full Self-Driving’ (FSD) driver assistance system, but must take over the steering wheel in certain situations. This is probably why Tesla is not calling this a ‘robotaxi’ for the time being, but merely a ‘ride-hailing’ service. In a video posted on social media by a passenger, the usual ‘Robotaxi’ labelling is also missing.
This means that the offer is essentially the same as when you book a Tesla vehicle with Uber, and the driver then uses Tesla’s ‘Supervised Full Self-Driving’ (FSD). This system only offers Level 2 automated driving, where the human driver must be able to take over the wheel at any time. However, this is completely different from the autonomous taxis from Google’s sister company Waymo, which operate without a safety driver and therefore at level 4 in San Francisco.
Speculation is already rife as to why Tesla has a driver on board its vehicles in San Francisco and the Bay Area, which fans initially thought were robotaxis: According to Politico, Tesla has not even applied for the necessary permits to operate autonomous vehicles in California yet, despite CEO Elon Musk claiming just last week that Tesla was waiting on regulators.
In addition to the offerings in Texas and California, Tesla is reportedly planning to launch a robotaxi service in Phoenix soon and is said to have already contacted the local Department of Transportation. Important to know: In the USA, autonomous driving is not yet federally regulated, but is a matter for the individual states. And so far, only 35 out of 50 states have enacted such regulations, although the differences are considerable. In Texas, autonomous vehicles can already be used without special authorisation, while California prescribes strict approval procedures and extensive testing. The industry hopes that a national set of regulations will soon be drawn up and introduced in order to create uniform standards.
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