California regulators granted Tesla permission to operate state ride services on Tuesday. This is early on in the ambitions of carmakers having their own robot taxi fleet.
With a permit issued by the California Public Utilities Commission, Elon Musk's company “can transport Tesla employees on a pre-requisite basis, in a Tesla-owned vehicle,” the statement said. This approval is a lot of things that Tesla needs to test self-driving cars on California roads.
Waymo, a robot taxi company owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, is the only company in California that offers self-driving vehicle vehicles, but Tesla is expected to become a major player in the growing sector for a long time. Musk, CEO, said the robot taxis will add trillions of dollars to Tesla's market capitalization.
Tesla has made its debut in a prototype robot taxi. Musk called it “Cybercab” in October. A month later, Tesla applied for a ride service permit in California, the agency said, but has yet to apply for what is needed to run the robot taxi service.
Musk said Tesla plans to deploy robot taxis in Texas as early as June, but the company has a history of delaying its robot taxi plans. Texas' regulations covering robot taxis are much more relaxed than in California, and Waymo made its robot taxi debut to the public this month in Austin.
Tesla needs a series of approvals from the California Utilities Commission and the Automobile Division to provide automated taxis on public California roads.
The Utility Committee regulates employed vehicles, including Uber and Lyft, but the automotive sector regulates safety.
“What they really need to do is convince the California DMV that their technology is safe,” said Matt Wansley, a law professor at the Cardozo School of Law in New York. “When California DMV says technology is safe, the CPUC can decide whether to carry passengers or not.”
Tesla also wants to offer current electric vehicles in electric vehicles, including Model 3 and Y, robot taxi capabilities. However, the goal presents unique safety and regulatory challenges that have not yet been tested or approved by the state's Department of Motor Vehicles.
“Tesla has approval to test self-driving vehicles with California safety drivers, but has not or applied for driverless testing or deployment permits from the DMV,” the department said.
Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.
