Tesla will test self-driving cars without humans in Austin

Nearly six months after launching a limited robotaxi service with a safety driver in Austin, Texas, the company said it is testing driverless vehicles without humans in the city.

CEO Elon Musk wrote in a post on his social network X over the weekend that “testing is underway without passengers in the vehicle.”

Tesla stock rose 3.6% to $475.31 at the close of trading on Monday. The stock is up 18% since the beginning of the year, about 1% below the record set in December 2024.

For more than a decade, Mr. Musk has promised Tesla investors and customers that the company’s electric cars could soon be upgraded to self-driving cars, capable of acting as driverless robotaxis or completing transcontinental trips without human intervention.

That hasn’t happened yet, but the company announced a Robotaxis-branded ride-hailing app and service in Austin in June, and another car service in the San Francisco Bay Area soon after.

Tesla’s official account wrote in two posts about the X on Sunday that “vehicles will power up via over-the-air software updates” and “slowly, then all at once.”

“So it begins!” Ashok Elswamy, Tesla’s vice president of AI software, wrote in a post on X in response to a video someone posted of what appears to be a driverless car in Austin.

Tesla has not said when it will be able to operate its ride-hailing service without human safety supervisors or drivers. But it may still be a long way off.

Tesla reported seven crashes involving its Austin vehicles as of mid-October. The car is equipped with ADS (Autonomous Driving System), which is not yet widely available, and has a human safety observer sitting in the passenger seat or behind the steering wheel.

The crash was not serious, according to self-reported data submitted by Tesla to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Philip Koopman, a professor emeritus and autonomous systems safety researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, said in an email that a fleet this small should have fewer than seven reported accidents, “especially considering that each vehicle has a safety supervisor whose job is to prevent accidents.”

Tesla’s robotaxi fleet in Austin consisted of fewer than 30 vehicles as of October. Musk said the company intends to double this to 60 people by the end of 2025.

Koopman noted that because Tesla chooses to hide the “narrative description” of all crashes in its reports to NHTSA, there is no way for the public to know what happened in each crash.

Tesla did not respond to requests for further information.

Texas currently allows self-driving car manufacturers to test and use their vehicles on public roads as long as they comply with traffic laws under the state’s traffic code. The Texas Department of Transportation told CNBC in an email that it “cannot discuss Tesla’s current activities as it does not have direct authority related to self-driving vehicle regulation.”

Regulatory requirements in Texas will change in 2026 with the implementation of Senate Bill 2807, passed by the Texas Legislature earlier this year. Starting May 28, 2026, self-driving vehicle operators in Texas will need a license from the DMV to commercially use self-driving vehicles on Texas roads.

California’s DMV Commission and Public Utilities Commission confirmed that Tesla has not yet applied for the necessary permits to conduct driverless tests or operate a commercial robotaxi service in the state.

Tesla is lagging behind in the self-driving car market of the alphabet Waymo in America, BaiduIn Asia, it is owned by Apollo Go and WeRide. All of these companies operate commercial ride-hailing robotaxi services in major markets.

Correction: An earlier version of this article had the closing price of Tesla stock incorrect.

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