Tesla has launched a robotaxi trial in Texas, marking the first time the company’s driverless vehicles have carried paying passengers without human intervention.

On Sunday, the carmaker deployed a small fleet of autonomous taxis in Austin, offering rides at a fixed rate of $4.20 via a dedicated robotaxi app, according to a post by Tesla’s chief executive Elon Musk on X.

Musk described the launch as the "culmination of a decade of hard work," crediting Tesla’s in-house development of AI chips and software.

During the trial, a dozen self-driving Teslas, supervised by safety monitors but operating without human drivers, transported passengers in Austin’s South Congress district. The initial phase involved influencers and early adopters, with Tesla investor and social media personality Sawyer Merritt among the first to share his experience. Merritt posted a video on X showing him ordering a robotaxi from a restaurant.

Despite the milestone, experts caution that Tesla still faces significant hurdles in scaling the service. Reuters reported that Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University professor and autonomous vehicle technology expert, said it could take "years or decades" for Tesla and rivals like Alphabet’s Waymo to fully establish a robotaxi industry.

"A successful experiment in Austin for Tesla would be the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end," Koopman added.

As Tesla’s robotaxi initiative progresses, Texas has introduced new regulations for autonomous vehicles. Governor Greg Abbott signed a law on Friday requiring companies to obtain a state permit before operating driverless vehicles on public roads. The rules mandate that autonomous vehicles must be registered, insured, and compliant with federal safety standards, while also providing emergency response protocols for authorities. The law takes effect on 1 September.

In 2024 at the "We, Robot" event, Musk announced plans to bring robotaxis to market for under $30,000, predicting they would revolutionise transportation.

"We’ll move from supervised full self-driving to unsupervised full self-driving, where the car…you could fall asleep and wake up at your destination," he said.

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