Musk promises that Robotaxi service will reach half of the US population by the end of 2025

Ilon Musk announced that robot taxis from Tesla will be available to about 50% of US residents by the end of 2025. He announced this during the company's second quarter report. The service will be deployed in several states, including Florida, California, Nevada and Arizona.

Here's What We Know

Tesla is already running a pilot in Austin, Texas, with about 10-20 Model Y cars with the updated FSD (fully autonomous driving) system travelling within a limited area. Tesla employees are still behind the wheel - they act as safety monitors and can intervene if necessary.

Musk emphasised that the company will continue to introduce autonomous technologies step by step, paying special attention to safety. At the same time, he admitted: cars with the HW3 hardware platform will not be allowed to participate in the robotaxi programme. Only models with newer HW4 or HW5 hardware will be able to operate in automatic mode. According to him, Tesla will first finalise the FSD adaptation for HW4 before thinking about HW3 support.

Technical problems

Some users in Austin have reported "phantom braking" and other driving glitches, especially at night or in challenging conditions. This has sparked interest from regulators - they plan to test the new system's performance.

Financial bottom line

Despite its technological ambitions, the company's quarterly results were weaker than expected. Musk called the current situation a transitional stage and expressed confidence that in the future through the development of autonomous services Tesla will be able to compensate for the current losses.

Source: The Verge