The general public may be able to hail a Tesla self-driving robotaxi as early as 2025, and employees are already testing the vehicles on some roads in the San Francisco Bay Area.
On an earnings call Wednesday, CEO Elon Musk said the company plans to launch its self-driving robotaxis in California and Texas next year. The timeline is contingent on regulatory approval, but Musk said he thinks the company will receive that approval by next year. He previously said the taxis, dubbed Cybercabs, would enter production as early as 2026.
Tesla is already testing the robotaxi service among employees in the Bay Area, Musk said. With the developer app, employees can hail a robotaxi that will take them anywhere within the region. Musk also said a human driver is on board for those rides in case of problems, but eventually that will no longer be the case.
Read more: Elon Musk Unveils the Long-Awaited Robotaxi and Tesla's Autonomous Future
Musk's remarks come nearly two weeks after the company held a splashy but strange press event at Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles, where it unveiled the Cybercab alongside 6-foot tall semiautonomous humanoid robots.
The autonomous vehicle, which was available for test rides, was shown in a silver-chrome hue and featured no steering wheel or pedals. It charges via induction and uses AI to navigate roads. Musk said the car will cost less than $30,000.
Musk and Tesla have long touted what the company calls "Full Self-Driving," with software that's designed to help a vehicle navigate roads, change lanes and park. Still, the company has said drivers need to remain alert and behind the wheel even with the feature activated. According to Musk, Tesla's robotaxis will be much safer than ones with human drivers. But the company's automated driving systems have raised safety concerns for some time, with federal regulators investigating them due to dozens of crashes.
Musk sees the service as a profound shift in Tesla's identity. "It will be very exciting," he said. "It's really a profound change. Tesla becomes more than a sort of vehicle and battery company at that point."
He said the approval process is expected to take longer in California than Texas, and that the Cybercab may come to more states soon after.
The self-driving industry continues to advance, with key players like Alphabet's Waymo operating in cities such as San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles, and Amazon's Zoox conducting robotaxi testing in California and Las Vegas. GM's Cruise, which faced suspension after an accident, has resumed manual and supervised operations in select cities.