Tesla Robotaxi to launch soon? Viral video of Elon Musk's long-awaited rollout sparks buzz among investors
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A controlled pilot, not a full launch
Musk's high-stakes bet on autonomy
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Is it really autonomous?
Investors still betting on the dream
A video showing a Tesla Model Y moving through a junction in Austin, Texas, without anyone in the driver's seat has sparked widespread attention online. The clip, shared on X (formerly Twitter), shows the car turning left past two pedestrians on a crosswalk. It carried a 'Robotaxi' logo on its side and appeared to have no one behind the wheel—just one person in the passenger seat.Tesla CEO Elon Musk reposted the video, calling it a 'Beautifully simple design.' It's the strongest visual signal yet of Tesla's long-awaited robotaxi rollout, which Musk has now confirmed could begin as early as 22 June, with the first self-driving delivery to a customer's home planned for 28 June.The short 10-second video was posted on Tuesday and has since been reshared by several Tesla executives, including Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's VP of Autopilot and AI. 'Slowly slowly at first, then…' Elluswamy wrote in a cryptic reference to the gradual rollout plan.The vehicle in the video appeared to be a refreshed Model Y. Though the windows were tinted, there was no visible driver. The logo on the car matched the Cybertruck-inspired font Tesla has been using in recent branding. When asked whether this marked a public launch or another test run, Tesla did not respond to media requests. The user who first posted the clip also remained silent.However, Musk clarified on X that these vehicles are 'unmodified Tesla cars coming straight from the factory,' meaning every new Tesla built is technically capable of full self-driving.Despite the attention, Tesla's service will remain small and tightly monitored for now. Musk said the rollout will begin with 10 vehicles, possibly scaling to 40 over several weeks. 'We just want to put our toe in the water, make sure everything is OK, then put a few more toes in the water,' he said during Tesla's Q4 earnings call earlier this year. 'With safety of the general public and those in the car as our top priority.'For now, Tesla is listed as being in the testing phase on the City of Austin's official autonomous vehicle registry. In contrast, Waymo, Google's autonomous unit, is already listed as deployed.Tesla's robotaxi debut will be restricted to geofenced zones in Austin. These vehicles are equipped with Tesla's Full Self-Driving ( FSD ) software and will be closely monitored—some remotely. According to Musk, 'We have a more advanced model in alpha stage that has ~4X the params, but still requires a lot of polishing. That's probably ready for deploy in a few months.'The timing of this test launch is critical for Tesla. The company's profits fell 71% in the first quarter of 2025, and its core business has come under pressure as Musk has polarised public opinion by wading into U.S. politics. Tesla's long-promised robotaxi programme is now being seen as a make-or-break moment.During an interview with CNBC, Musk suggested that within a few months, Tesla could have 1,000 robotaxis operating in the U.S. By the end of 2026, he projected that number could swell to over a million. 'The streets will change very rapidly,' he posted on Tuesday. 'Autonomous cars will be very common throughout the world in 2 to 3 years.'Tesla isn't the only company running the driverless race. Waymo is already offering robotaxi rides in four U.S. cities—Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin. It also recently partnered with Uber to offer autonomous trips through the Uber app.According to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Waymo's fleet of around 100 robotaxis in Austin is 'now busier than over 99% of all drivers in Austin in terms of complete trips per day.' In California alone, Waymo's paid rides increased from 12,000 in August 2023 to over 708,000 in March 2025. In total, Waymo has delivered more than 5 million rides over the past three years, per the California Public Utilities Commission Other competitors testing autonomous vehicles in Austin include Amazon's Zoox, Volkswagen ADMT , and AVRide, a spinoff of Yandex.Musk has long promised that Tesla would leapfrog rivals by relying solely on cameras and computer vision—no lidar, no radar. 'The overwhelming focus is on solving full self-driving,' Musk said back in 2022. 'That's essential. It's really the difference between Tesla being worth a lot of money or worth basically zero.'But the reality is more complicated. Tesla's current software is still classified as Level 2 driver assistance and has required frequent human interventions. Federal regulators have linked Tesla's Autopilot and FSD software to dozens of crashes, some fatal. Last year, Tesla recalled over two million vehicles to add safety warnings and software constraints.Seth Goldstein, an analyst at Morningstar , noted: 'I see really little impact in 2025,' adding that Musk's 2026 target for millions of robotaxis is 'a bit optimistic.' He believes Tesla may truly scale by 2028—if the software improves.Despite doubts, some analysts remain bullish. Wedbush's Dan Ives called the upcoming Austin launch 'key,' writing: 'We believe the vast majority of valuation upside looking ahead for Tesla is centred around the success of its autonomous vision.' He maintains a $500 price target, and expects Tesla to expand its robotaxi fleet to 20–25 U.S. cities in the next year.Stifel analyst Stephen Gengaro wrote that Tesla could dominate with its seven million autonomy-ready vehicles already on roads. 'Competitors' fleets of just thousands of cars would only be able to serve a confined portion of the total addressable market,' he wrote.Tesla has asked city officials to keep details of the pilot private, citing trade secrets. But the public rollout is now visible for anyone to see—starting with a short, silent turn caught on video.The question now is whether this is the beginning of Tesla's self-driving revolution—or just another tightly managed tech demo designed to keep the vision alive. As Musk put it, 'First Tesla that drives itself from factory end of line all the way to a customer house is June 28.'The countdown has begun.
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