Elon Musk's goal of a fully autonomous car that could serve as a Robotaxi is getting another trial this week, albeit with a human operator behind the wheel.

Five years after Musk [1]predicted that there would be a million self-driving Tesla taxis on the road, they finally launched an invitation-only trial with [2]a handful of modified Model Ys in Austin last month, complete with an in-car safety monitor. Now Tesla is issuing invitations for Robotaxi rides in San Francisco, although with some important caveats.

For example, there's a human in the driver's seat as opposed to the front-passenger seat in the Austin tests. This is most likely because regulators haven't cleared Tesla to run an autonomous driving service in the state as yet, so the cars need someone behind the wheel.

[3]

"Tesla’s Bay Area Robotaxi service requires a safety driver to sit at the wheel and take over when Full Self-Driving makes a safety critical error. Calling this a ‘robotaxi’ is utterly farcical," said Dan O'Dowd in a press release. O'Dowd is the self-proclaimed billionaire founder of The Dawn Project, which is on a [4]crusade against Tesla's claimed self-driving capabilities.

[5]Tesla's big reveal: Steering-wheel-free Robotaxi will charge wirelessly

[6]Musk's antics and distractions are backfiring as Tesla's car business stalls

[7]Cruise fined $1.5M for failing to report right away its robo-car dragged a pedestrian

[8]Tesla promises to build robot you could beat up – or beat in a race

His Muskiness [9]unveiled a specialized Robotaxi design last October, and claimed the cars would be available at a sub-$30,000 price point. That might be possible because, unlike most self-driving vehicles, Tesla eschews using a Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensor, which fires off laser pulses to map surroundings via 3D point clouds, and instead trusts less expensive cameras positioned around the vehicle.

With the Austin launch, this proved less than successful. Despite only allowing select early-access testers into the cars, including Tesla influencers, they [10]still recorded a number of dangerous mistakes made by the so-called autonomous vehicles – including driving down the wrong side of the street and halting in the middle of the road.

[11]

[12]

Self-driving pioneer Waymo is already well ahead of the game, both in SF and elsewhere in the US. The Google sister-company's cars, which are LIDAR-equipped, have been operating in Fog Town for over a year now. However, according to reports, they've been involved in several notable incidents over the years, including a [13]fatal dog strike in 2023, a multi-vehicle [14]collision in San Francisco in January, and a case of [15]being set alight during anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles in June.

On the other hand, Cruise, the GM-backed autonomous car service, [16]shut down after having its permits to operate [17]withdrawn after running over [18]a pedestrian who had been struck by another car.

[19]

Tesla needs to get in the game. Given the parlous state of its car sales after Musk cozied up to Trump and showed his far-right bona fides with public Nazi salutes, the car maker needs to keep promoting gee-whiz future tech to bolster its stock price, which is [20]down about 23 percent this year, even as the tech-heavy NASDAQ index is [21]up almost 10 percent.

At the moment, Musk is also touting the [22]Optimus robot , a humanoid handy helper that he promised would be on the market [23]three years ago . So far all we've seen on this is a humanoid in a body suit and robots operated by human controllers.

In the interest of the public's right to know, this Vulture hack has asked Tesla for a Robotaxi ride, which we'll pay for. So far no offer has been forthcoming. ®

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[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/22/elon-musk-says-tesla-robotaxis-will-hit-the-market-next-year.html

[2] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/24/tesla_robotaxi_austin/

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aIvndzSDfC_4SyVw9YStoQAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/30/selfdriving_tesla_accident/

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/11/tesla_robotaxi_robovan_arrive/

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/03/elon_musk_tesla_deliveries_distraction/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/01/cruise_fined_nhtsa/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/20/tesla_ai_day/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/11/tesla_robotaxi_robovan_arrive/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/24/tesla_robotaxi_austin/

[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aIvndzSDfC_4SyVw9YStoQAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aIvndzSDfC_4SyVw9YStoQAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/07/waymo_robotaxi_kills_dog/

[14] https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/waymo-multi-car-wreck-san-francisco-driverless/3766860/

[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/09/la_protest_waymo/

[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/15/cruise_parks_fleet/

[17] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/24/california_dmv_cruise/

[18] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/01/cruise_fined_nhtsa/

[19] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aIvndzSDfC_4SyVw9YStoQAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[20] https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/TSLA/

[21] https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/.IXIC

[22] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/05/tesla_musk_robot/

[23] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/20/tesla_ai_day/

[24] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/