Tesla tests driverless cars in Austin without humans on board

Nearly six months after launching a limited Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, with safety drivers in the car, the company said it was testing driverless vehicles without humans in the city.

“Testing continues with no one on board,” CEO Elon Musk wrote. to post on the weekend social network X.

Tesla shares rose 3.6% to $475.31 at the close on Monday. The stock is currently up 18% on the year and remains about 1% behind the record reached in December 2024.

For more than a decade, Musk has been promising Tesla investors and customers that the company’s electric vehicles could soon be upgraded to driverless vehicles, serve as unmanned robotaxis or complete a cross-country journey without any human intervention.

While that hasn’t happened yet, the company announced a Robotaxi-branded ride-hailing app and service in Austin in June, and a separate ride-hailing service in the San Francisco Bay Area shortly after.

On Sunday, Tesla’s official account wrote a pair of posts on X, saying, “Fleet will wake up with over-the-air software update” and “Slowly, then all at once.”

“And so it begins!” Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s vice president of AI software, wrote: to post In response to a video posted by someone else on X of what appears to be a self-driving vehicle in Austin.

Tesla did not say when it would be able to operate its ride-hailing service without human safety supervisors or drivers on board. But it may still have a long way to go.

Tesla reported seven crashes among vehicles in its Austin fleet as of mid-October. Cars feature ADS, or automated driving systems, which are not yet widely available, and human safety monitors in the passenger seat or behind the steering wheel.

Tesla’s self-reported data submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows the crashes were not serious.

With such a small fleet, there should be fewer than seven reportable accidents, “especially considering that each one has a safety supervisor whose job it is to prevent accidents,” Philip Koopman, a professor emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University and autonomous systems safety researcher, said in an email.

Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet in Austin consisted of 30 or fewer vehicles as of October. Musk said the company plans to double this number to 60 by the end of 2025.

Koopman noted that Tesla chose to hide the “narrative explanation” of all crashes in its reports to NHTSA, so there is no way for the public to know what happened in every crash.

Tesla did not respond to a request for more information.

In Texas, autonomous vehicle manufacturers are currently allowed to test or operate their cars on public roads as long as they comply with traffic laws under the state’s transportation code. The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles told CNBC in an email that it “does not have direct authority regarding autonomous vehicle regulation and therefore cannot speak to current Tesla-related activities.”

Regulatory requirements in Texas will change in 2026 with the implementation of the following law: Senate Bill 2807Which the Texas legislature passed earlier this year. As of May 28, 2026, autonomous vehicle operators in Texas will have to obtain a permit from the DMV for commercial use of their autonomous vehicles on Texas roads.

California’s DMV and Public Utilities Commissions confirmed that Tesla has not yet applied for the permits required to conduct driverless testing or operate a commercial robotaxi service in the state without a human at the steering wheel.

Tesla is falling behind in the autonomous vehicle market alphabet Waymo in the USA and baiduIn Asia, it is owned by Apollo Go and WeRide. All of these companies operate commercial ride-hailing robotaxi services in major markets.

Correction: An earlier version of this story had an incorrect closing price for Tesla shares.

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