Tesla planned to have front-seat passengers acting as ‘safety monitors’ on Sunday but unclear how much control they would have over the cars
After driverless Tesla Model Ys were spotted traversing Austin, Texas streets on Sunday morning, CEO Elon Musk posted on his social platform X that Tesla’s “robotaxi launch” would start this afternoon with journeys for a flat fee of US$4.20.
A Reuters witness saw several Tesla “robotaxis” on Sunday morning in a popular area of the Texas capital called South Congress with no one in the driver’s seat but one person in the passenger seat.
As the date of the planned robotaxi launch approached, Texas lawmakers moved to enact rules on autonomous vehicles in the state.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, on Friday signed legislation requiring a state permit to operate self-driving vehicles.
