The electric vehicle (EV) maker posted a glimpse of the work on social media site X, with a video showing a person using their phone to hail a Tesla. A driver sits in front as various passengers ride around in the back seat.
“Getting ready for unsupervised self-driving,” posted chief executive officer Elon Musk in response to the video.
The Austin move and previously announced efforts with Tesla employees in the Bay Area were part of testing that would help develop and validate features including the app, driver-assistance software and vehicle allocation, Tesla said on Wednesday. It has done more than 1,500 trips and completed 15,000 miles (24,140km) of driving, according to the post.
The ride-hailing service deploys a suite of features Tesla calls full self-driving, which, despite the name, requires continual driver supervision and does not make its vehicles autonomous. A safety driver is present to intervene as needed, according to a disclaimer on the Tesla video.
Tesla’s plan was to launch a version of the software that, while driverless, would be under remote supervision, executives said Tuesday in a call with investors. That is expected to launch under the Robotaxi name to the public this summer. It would start in Austin with 10 to 20 Model Y vehicles before scaling further, with plans to add other cities and vehicle models to the fleet, they said.
