Austin (World Desk): The world’s leading electric car company Tesla has finally launched its automated taxi service ‘Robotaxi’. This service has currently been started for limited passengers in some areas of Austin city and it is being considered a part of Elon Musk’s revolutionary future plans. Tesla’s robotaxi service is completely driver-less, although initially a safety monitoring employee is present in each vehicle. The cars automatically drive, brake, turn and park — that too without any human intervention. For the initial trips, Tesla chose social media influencers and investors, who shared their ride experience online. A passenger said, “It was a much more comfortable experience than a human driver.”
Tesla Robotaxi performance at night is as great as it is during the day. pic.twitter.com/DL864fCVuz
— Zack (@BLKMDL3) June 23, 2025
How does this service work?
The robotaxi service is available from 6 am to 12 pm, and currently operates only within a geofenced area (defined boundary). The area does not include the airport and service may be limited in bad weather conditions. A flat rate of $4.20 is being charged as a trip fee. Elon Musk himself has confirmed this, but it is unclear whether this fee will be permanent in the future.
Limited vehicles in the first phase
Tesla is currently running this service with only 10-20 vehicles. Its purpose is to test the technology in real conditions and see how vehicles navigate between traffic, pedestrians and other cars without a driver. However, a minor problem also came up during the trip, when the car stopped in the middle of the road for some time when a user pressed the button to “stop” the vehicle. But the vehicle soon resumed the journey.
Economic turning point for Tesla?
Tesla shares have fallen by about 20% in early 2025, and the company faces many challenges. Investors are considering this new service as the key to Tesla’s revival. According to RBC Capital Markets analyst Tom Narayan, 60% of Tesla’s stock value is based on self-driving technology. This is why robotaxi is considered extremely important for the company.
Strong competition
Tesla will face tough competition from giants already present in cities like Austin. Companies like Google’s Waymo and Amazon’s Zoox are already active in this field and are expanding by partnering with Uber. Regulators are also extremely cautious due to other companies being involved in self-driving accidents in the past years. GM’s Cruise and Uber have already had to stop their autonomous projects.
Is robotaxi the ride of the future?
Elon Musk has been talking about fully autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots for many years. This service is considered to be the beginning of a phase of that future.Analysts and technology lovers believe that this beginning can gradually turn into a global change, provided Tesla can make the technology safe, reliable and widely scalable.
