Tesla Robotaxi is about to start: only 10 cars are limited to employees for test rides

Tesla's unmanned taxi Robotaxi service will be officially put into operation in Austin, the United States on June 22, fulfilling Musk's promise of a "technical milestone" announced last month. However, the Financial Times revealed that the initial scale has been greatly reduced: only about 10 Model Y models will participate in carrying passengers, and avoid complex intersections in the city to minimize the risk of accidents. At the same time, to ensure absolute safety, Tesla will enable a real-time "remote takeover system" so that backstage operators can intervene in vehicle control in an emergency to ensure the smooth completion of the journey.

The service may only be experienced by employees and invited guests in the early stage, and it will take several months of debugging before it is fully open to the public. The New York Times quoted an analysis that this move is aimed at accumulating data to optimize the system. In fact, this project originated from the Cybercab model and shared travel vision released in October 2024-Musk once envisioned that all Tesla vehicles can be transformed into "idle taxis" through the FSD system.

Despite this, the real challenges are severe: the US NHTSA is investigating the potential risks of FSD accidents in depth, and Tesla's refusal to disclose Austin's operating records has raised questions about its technological maturity.