Tesla stock is up about 2% mid-day after a mid-day interview between David Faber and Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO told CNBC that Tesla will launch robotaxis in Austin by the end of June, starting with about 10 vehicles and expanding if all goes smoothly.
“It’s prudent for us to start with a small number, confirm that things are going well and then scale it up,” Musk said.
The vehicles, Model Ys using an upcoming version of FSD called FSD Unsupervised, will operate without human drivers and be geofenced within Austin. Tesla staff will monitor them remotely, according to CNBC.
“We’ll be watching what the cars are doing very carefully and as confidence grows, less of that will be needed,” he told Faber.
Musk aims to expand the service to Los Angeles and San Francisco next. He emphasized Tesla's camera-based, AI-driven approach over pricier lidar-based systems used by competitors like Waymo, which now runs 250,000 paid driverless trips weekly.
“What will actually work best for the road system is artificial intelligence, digital neural nets and cameras,” Musk said.
CNBC writes that responding to Tesla's 20% drop in Q1 auto revenue, Musk blamed factory retooling for a new Model Y but said demand is now rebounding.
“We can’t make cars if the factories are retooling. But we’ve seen a major rebound in demand at this point,” he told Faber. “When you buy a product, how much do you care about the political views of the CEO or even care what they are?”
When asked about BYD and competition, Musk told Faber he pays little attention to competitors and only to what Tesla is working on internally.
Earlier this morning during the Qatar Economic Forum, Musk confirmed he’ll lead Tesla for the next five years: “Yes, no doubt about that at all.”
The interview came about a month after Tesla's brutal Q1 earnings, where the company missed Wall Street's expectations and warned about increased uncertainty through the first half of 2025.
