(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc. is in early discussions with the city of Austin about its autonomous vehicle technology it hopes to roll out on Texas roads as early as next year.
Emails acquired by Bloomberg through public records requests show a Tesla employee has been communicating with the city of Austin’s autonomous vehicle task force since at least May to establish safety expectations for the vehicles as the company decides if Austin will be the first Texas city where Tesla deploys driverless fleets.
“Tesla is still working to strategically find a city within Texas to deploy... The city of Austin is obviously on our roadmap, but has not yet been decided where we will deploy first as we have many options available,” a November email from the employee said.
A successful rollout is key to Tesla as Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has increasingly bet the company’s future on autonomous technology and robotaxis, but the needed approvals could be years away. A number of competitors have already deployed driverless cars on public roads in select cities.
Tesla unveiled a prototype of its long-awaited driverless, pedal-less vehicle called the Cybercab during its Hollywood robotaxi event in October. Musk also said the company planned to offer an “unsupervised version” of its driver-assistance technology in California and Texas next year. The event left many investors with more questions than answers about timelines and how Tesla planned to move from advanced driver-assistance features to fully autonomous vehicles. Shares slid as much as 10% the next day.
Later that month on a call with investors, Musk announced the company also aimed to roll out rideshare service to the public in California and Texas using existing vehicle models.
The Tesla employee first reached out to Austin ahead of the company’s robotaxi day, expressing interest in joining the city’s autonomous vehicle task force. The employee said the company aimed to meet Austin’s safety expectations and train first responders how to interact with the vehicles.
Austin’s autonomous vehicle task force was established last year to formalize communication around the emerging technology. The group works with autonomous vehicle companies and residents to collect feedback and incident data, and to establish safety training and procedures. The task force is largely made up of first responders and the city’s transportation department. It works with a number of autonomous vehicle companies that have been testing in the city including Waymo, Volkswagen and Zoox.
Tesla has for years sold a suite of features called Full Self-Driving, or FSD, that requires constant driver supervision and is not fully autonomous. Musk said in October that he expects Model 3 and Y owners later this year to no longer need to supervise those features. But Tesla and Musk have a track record of blowing past product timelines, particularly for self-driving technology.
The company held an event in Austin on December 5 to train first responders on how to best work with Tesla’s autonomous vehicle technology. Emails noted the training might help steer Tesla’s deployment strategy. Ahead of the event, the employee said the company was not testing on public roadways in Texas, only on Tesla’s Austin gigafactory campus, and would notify state and local authorities ahead of any change.
Musk said on an October earnings call that Tesla is already pilot testing rideshare technology in the Bay Area with Tesla employees, using an internal app and safety drivers in the vehicles. The company could use a similar approach in Texas.
In the past, Musk has criticized competitors, including Waymo, for pursuing a city-by-city rollout of technology using high-density mapping. He told investors in July that Tesla has a “general solution that works anywhere” while Waymo takes a more “localized” approach.
The early moves in Austin and California come as Musk pushes for regulations nationally to be loosened, which could be a priority under incoming President Donald Trump.
In Texas, where autonomous vehicles are regulated much like any other car and cities do not set regulations, Tesla will face few regulatory hurdles. Companies must have insurance, be able to follow traffic laws and be equipped with video recording devices. Robotaxis must have their own licensing, and the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation has yet to list Tesla as a licensee.
General Motors Co. shut down robotaxi operations run by its Cruise autonomous vehicle subsidiary in early December, saying the unit was costing too much money and is no longer seen as core to the automaker’s business.
Cruise had just resumed testing this year after grounding its fleet in late 2023. One of its cars struck and dragged a pedestrian. The GM unit had trouble in Austin, too. Its cars had caused traffic jams and other complaints, including 20 of its cars stalling out at one intersection near the University of Texas campus.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson has been a vocal skeptic of the technology, and particularly of Cruise. He said in March that while autonomous technology is “promising,” it’s not there yet. At the time Watson encouraged companies to be proactive in working with the city, which has long been a testing ground for autonomous vehicle technology.
--With assistance from David Welch.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.