Teslais set to begin a test of its long-promisedrobotaxiservice on schedule inAustin,Texas, by theendofJune, Chief Executive ElonMusksaid on Tuesday, even as the company faces safety questions from a US regulator.
The electric vehicle maker will roll out about 10 self-driving cars in some parts of the city, and scale up to about a thousand within a few months,Musktold CNBC in an interview.
“We are actually going to deploy not to the entireAustinregion, but only the parts that are the safest.”
Teslasales have fallen worldwide with rising competition and asMuskfaces a backlash for his right-wing political views and his work for US President Donald Trump.
Muskhas said he will reduce his work for Trump and focus onTesla. “My rough plan on the White House is to be there for a couple days, every few weeks, and to be helpful where I can be helpful,” he said.
A successfulrobotaxitrialis crucial forTeslaasMuskhas shifted the company’s focus away from building a new, cheaper EV platform tolaunching therobotaxiservice and its Optimus humanoid robots. Much ofTesla’s valuation hangs on that bet.
“The only things that matter in the long term are autonomy and Optimus,”Musktold CNBC.
Autonomous vehicle technology has been hard to commercialise, with tight regulations and heavy investments forcing many companies to give up. Those still in the race, including Alphabet’s Waymo, have faced increased scrutiny.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been investigating collisions involvingTesla’s full self-driving (FSD) advanced driver assistance software in reduced roadway visibility conditions since October. The US road safety regulator askedTeslalast week to answer questions on its paidrobotaxiservicelaunchto assess how the cars will perform in poor weather.
Teslais in talks with major automakers to license the FSD software that is expected to underpin itsrobotaxis,Musksaid.
To power his broader artificial intelligence vision,Musk’s xAI startup has been ramping up its data center capacity to train more advanced models, and its supercomputer cluster in Memphis, Tennessee, called “Colossus,” is touted as the world’s largest.
xAI will deploy a million of Nvidia’s advanced Blackwell chips at a new facility near Memphis,Musksaid. “So long as Nvidia is better than what we make, we’ll keep buying from Nvidia,” he said. xAI bought a 1-million-square-foot property in Southwest Memphis, Tennessee, the Greater Memphis Chamber said in March.
Musk, who merged xAI with his social media platform X in March, said a merger betweenTeslaand xAI was not being considered but was “not out of the question,” though it would need shareholder approval.
© Thomson Reuters 2025
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