Tesla Readies a Taxi Service in San Francisco—but Not With Robotaxis
Tesla has publicly Played his future on his robotaxis. Now the company plans to launch a public public service in the San Francisco Bay region. Tesla calls it a “Robotaxi” service, but legally, it will have to use cars with human drivers.
The plan seems to put the electric car manufacturer in legal waters troubled in an American state with the most closely regulated autonomous vehicle industry in the country – and where Tesla is already continued for a deceptive language around its driving assistance technology.
On Friday, a spokesman for California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates driving and taxi services in the state, said that Tesla had informed the agency on Thursday that it planned to extend a taxi service reserved for employees to friends and employees’ family and to “select” public members. Technically, Tesla is legally clear to launch this type of service in California: in March, he obtained a “Transport Day” permit to take Tesla employees during prior trips with a driver behind the wheel. But Tesla is not Legally authorized to operate an autonomous vehicle service.
“Tesla is not allowed to test or transport the public (paid or not remunerated) in a [autonomous vehicle] With or without driver, ”wrote the spokesperson for the CPUC, Terrie Prosper.[autonomous vehicle]Who, of course, would have a driver. »»
Business Insider first said that Tesla told employees that he planned to launch a “Robotaxi” service in the bay region on Friday.
During a call for Wednesday results with investors, Tesla Vice-President of AI software, Ashok Elluswamy, said Tesla “works with the government to obtain approval” to be launched in the Bay region. “Meanwhile, we will launch the service with a person in the driver’s headquarters just to accelerate while we are waiting for regulatory approval,” he said.
Legally, however, Tesla is not currently authorized to launch a service with autonomous vehicles, which means that “the person in the driver’s seat” must be a driver. Tesla does not have a license to control autonomous vehicle technology even with a safety driver, Prosper says: “So he cannot use a driver [autonomous vehicle] in the passenger service.
Tesla seems to speak on both sides of her mouth here. The company seems to insist on regulators that it simply operates a taxi service in California, while suggesting shareholders and Wall Street that the new taxi service uses “Robotaxie” and is independent. The automaker seems to have used the technique before. He is currently part of the administrative court with the state of California for allegations that Tesla has misleading consumers for years using language such as “automatic pilot” and “complete autonomous” to sell a technology that cannot behave, but must be supervised by a human driver at any time.
“Tesla could not have both ways,” explains Philip Koopman, professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies the autonomous security of vehicles. The car manufacturer “gives California more ammunition for the false advertising trial by insisting that it is a Robotaxi when they say that regulators are really not.”
