Elon Musk told Tesla staff the company is ready to launch robotaxis in San Francisco this weekend — there’s just one small problem: the law.
The company is forbidden from rolling out its robotaxi service in San Francisco this weekend, the California Public Utilities Commission confirmed Friday.
Tesla staff were told Thursday the self-driving car taxi service would soon launch across a large swath of the Bay Area, including Marin, much of the East Bay, and San Francisco, stretching down to San Jose, according to a memo viewed by Business Insider. The memo said the program would launch with safety drivers.
However, a spokesperson for the CPUC said Tesla had not applied for the proper permit. “Tesla has not received approval from the CPUC to offer autonomous passenger service to customers, paid or unpaid, with or without a driver,” the spokesperson said.
Tesla on Thursday notified the CPUC that it intends to extend operations under an existing permit that allows a human driver to drive a traditional vehicle — not an AV — for commercial services. Tesla said it would offer this taxi service to friends and family of employees and select members of the public across the Bay Area.
In short, hailing a Tesla taxi would be no different from calling an Uber or Lyft.
This expansion is permitted in human-driven vehicles, the CPUC spokesperson said, adding that Tesla would be breaking the law if it began ferrying passengers around the Bay Area in robotaxis manned by safety drivers.
“Elon Musk is daring the state to stop him — and if California regulators don’t act, they’re handing him the keys to ignore every safety rule we have,” said Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, who represents the western neighborhoods of San Francisco and northern San Mateo.
Musk said this month on X that Tesla was waiting on regulatory approval to launch in the Bay Area within “a month or two.”
On Tesla’s quarterly earnings call Wednesday, Musk said the company was in the process of getting regulatory approval in California, and its robotaxis would initially operate with a safety driver in the front seat. He added that he anticipates Tesla to expand its robotaxi service well beyond its competitors, pending regulatory approval in the Bay Area, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida.
“I think we’ll probably have autonomous ride-hailing in, like, half of the population of the U.S. by the end of the year,” Musk said.
Tesla launched its robotaxi service last month in Texas. The company has 10 to 20 vehicles operating in a geofenced area of Austin, with safety monitors in the passenger seats and remote operators on standby to intervene.
If Tesla goes through with its robotaxi launch in San Francisco this weekend, it will occur during one of the city’s most traffic-clogged periods. Lady Gaga rounds off this week’s Chase Center concerts Saturday night, and the Giants begin a three-game run against the New York Mets on Friday at Oracle Park. On Sunday, the 48th annual San Francisco Marathon will close major arteries throughout the city from early morning through mid-afternoon.
Organizers expect more than 31,000 runners to participate in various races, including the main 26.2-mile event, which starts at 5:15 a.m. at the Embarcadero and Mission Street. The race crosses the Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, and the Mission.