Tesla begins testing autonomous vehicles with its employees

As part of Tesla’s latest development in autonomous vehicles, the company has begun testing the service with its employees in the San Francisco Bay Area. Elon Musk – the CEO of Tesla – shared the details during the electric vehicle maker’s third-quarter earnings conference call, noting that it will allow employees to summon rides using a prototype app .

Musk aims to roll out driverless paid rides by 2025 in California and Texas – a development that would be a major step in the company’s autonomous vehicle efforts. Currently, employees who can hail rides will have vehicles accompanied by safety drivers. “For Tesla employees in the Bay Area, we already offer calling capability,” Musk said during the earnings conference call Wednesday. “With the development app, you can request a ride, and it will take you anywhere in the Bay Area,” he added.

As for the commercial deployment of a fleet of autonomous vehicles, Tesla plans to deploy modified versions of its existing Model 3 and Model Y vehicles for service in the initial stages. Eventually, there will be a transition to the Cybercab – which was showcased at Tesla’s robotaxi event earlier this month during Tesla’s ‘We Robot’ event. Ultimately, Tesla aims to produce 2 to 4 million Cybercabs per year. This development follows Tesla obtaining the license> operate data centers and provide content distribution networks in China.

For now, Tesla has a long way to go before its fleet fully transitions to autonomous vehicles, which takes the human element out of the equation. Musk notes that the company has yet to get the green light from regulators, particularly in California (the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) exercise strict control over testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles in the country. By comparison, it is easier to obtain regulatory approval in Texas. And if things go well, expect to see Tesla’s robotaxis in other states by the end of 2025.

If you’ve been following us, you know that Tesla’s robotaxi relies on the company’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, designed to offer advanced driving assistance. For the moment, autonomous vehicles are nothing like a science fiction film, especially since the FSD does not have the best track record. It is currently under scrutiny from regulators, including the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) – the system has already led to multiple accidents (for example, one incident resulted in the collision of a Tesla passenger car with a pedestrian, while another incident saw a Tesla Semi crash on Interstate 80 and catch fire). Musk remains optimistic about FSD, however, and David Lau, Tesla’s vice president of software engineering, confirmed that the vehicles used for testing will have human drivers (as a precaution) and will run on the latest version of the software. FSD.

The announcement comes a week after the company’s robotaxi event failed to inspire investor confidence, and the company was instead criticized for its lack of specific business plans or timelines. Tesla nevertheless managed to rebound, regaining investor confidence by achieving revenue of $25.18 billion for the third quarter of the year. This beat analyst estimates of $25.37 billion and recorded annual growth of 8%. Its earnings per share (EPS) stood at 72 cents/share for the same period, while its net income stood at approximately $2.17 billion.