Tesla has applied for a permit to operate a ride-hailing service in California, but it will be using human drivers rather than the promised robotaxi.

Last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed that Tesla would launch “unsupervised self-driving in Texas and California in Q2 2025.”

However, we suspected that this would not be “unsupervised self-driving’ in customer vehicles like Tesla has been promising since 2016, but an internal fleet with teleoperation support in a geo-fenced area for ride-hailing services, much like Waymo has been doing for years.

Sure enough, Musk confirmed last month that this was the plan for Austin in June. We describe this as a “moving of the goal post” for Tesla.

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With the focus on Austin in June, Tesla stopped talking about California, which was announced to happen at the same time as Texas last year.

Now, Bloomberg reports that Tesla has applied for a ride-hailing permit in California:

The electric vehicle manufacturer applied late last year for what’s known as a transportation charter-party carrier permit from the California Public Utilities Commission, according to documents viewed by Bloomberg. That classification means Tesla would own and control the fleet of vehicles.

But this application is for a regular ride-hailing service, like Uber, albeit for an internal fleet rather than vehicles operated by customers.

Tesla has yet to apply for a permit to operate driverless vehicles:

In its communications with California officials, Tesla discussed driver’s license information and drug-testing coordination, suggesting the company intends to use human drivers, at least initially. Tesla is applying for the same type of permit used by Waymo, Alphabet Inc.’s robotaxi business. While Tesla has approval to test autonomous vehicles with a safety driver in California, it doesn’t have, nor has applied for, a driverless testing or deployment permit from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles, according to a spokesperson.

Musk claimed that he believes Tesla will be able to achieve “unsupervised self-driving” in California by “the end of the year”, but he has claimed that every year for the past decade.

The latest available data shows that Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system is achieving about 500 miles between critical disengagement. Tesla has stated that it believes it needs to reach 700,000 miles between critical disengagement to be safer than humans.

Electrek’s Take

This is just a step for Tesla to test ride-hailing services ahead of autonomy. A nothing burger, really, since ride-hailing has obviously been solved already by several companies, Lyft, Uber, Didi, etc.

What needs to be solved is autonomous driving.

As I have been saying for the last year, I am sure Tesla will be able to launch an internal fleet with teleoperation support in a geo-fenced area for a ride-hailing service in California later this year like it plans to do in Austin in June, but that’s nowhere near what Tesla promised since 2016.

It’s a moving of the goal post, and it’s basically just proving that Tesla is able to do something similar to Waymo – 5 years later.

Tesla drivers in China are using the new Full Self-Driving update and are racking up fines as the system drives in bike lanes and makes illegal turns.

As we reported earlier this week, Tesla has started to release advanced driver-assist features sold under its Full Self-Driving (FSD) package in China.

The feature is called “Autopilot automatic assisted driving on urban roads” as Tesla seems more cautious about using the term “Full Self-Driving” in China, but it is a feature known for being in the FSD package everywhere else.

Tesla has been facing a lot of issues in releasing FSD features in China. The automaker has been limited in its neural net training due to restrictions about data coming in and out of the country, and it found it difficult to adapt to regulations regarding bus lanes and other China-specific road rules.

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CEO Elon Musk warned that FSD in China would be a problem during Tesla’s earnings call last month due to the different rules. He mentioned bus lanes as an example:

By the way, were about the biggest challenges in making FSD work in China is the bus lanes are very complicated. And there’s like literally like hours of the day that you’re allowed to be there and not be there. And then if you accidentally go in that bus lane at the wrong time, you get an automatic ticket instantly. So, it’s kind of a big deal, bus lanes in China.

The automated ticketing system is not just for bus lanes and Tesla owners are learning about it the hard way.

Tesla owners have been testing out the features in live streams on social media and some of them are reporting getting numerous tickets for using FSD.

For example, this Tesla driver received 7 tickets in the space of a single drive because the FSD drove in bike lanes and made illegal maneuvers:

Car News China tracked several live streams and customer feedback on Chinese social media, and the consensus appears to be that it’s “pretty good, but with lots of bugs”.

The drivers are particularly impressed with how “natural” FSD drives, but they also noted that it still

Where the system lacks is the understanding of local traffic rules (such as no use of shoulder/bike lanes on turns, similar to the bus lane rules that Elon talked about in the most recent earnings call) and the sporadic use of wrong lanes (e.g. going straight in a left or right turn only lane) or navigation showing the vehicle in one lane when in fact it’s in another or wrong perception of objects (red balloons as traffic lights). Many of the live streams counted the number of traffic violations from the vehicle and the number of points that would have been taken off or licenses suspended (12 points = suspension) as a result.

Chinese media websites are now getting flooded with Tesla vehicles running red traffic lights, failing to recognize green lights, and driving on restricted lanes, like the video above.

The report also highlights how Tesla is facing strong competition in ADAS in China, with competitors like Nio, Xpeng, BYD, and others launching competitive products, which is not necessarily the case in other markets for Tesla.

Electrek’s Take

I feel like this is likely going to result in bad PR for Tesla in China. You can’t have drivers losing their licenses because FSD doesn’t recognize bike lanes.

Now, of course, Tesla will say that the driver remains responsible, but I don’t know how good Tesla’s messaging is on that front in China.

It’s going to be an interesting story to track in the coming months.

After an oil change, a woman found a racial slur printed on the sticker inside her SUV. Now, she’s getting a free electric vehicle. A Nissan dealer nearly 900 miles away is gifting her a free LEAF EV, saying she won’t need an oil change ever again. The electric car was specifically chosen so the shocking incident doesn’t happen again.

Nissan gifts a free LEAF EV after a traumatic oil change

“We were definitely shocked. We couldn’t believe such behavior,” Ramzey Rizk said with Family Nissan, a NY dealer, after hearing about the ordeal.

The incident happened last month at Kunes Buick GMC in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, when Makayla Starks found a racial slur printed on her vehicle’s oil change sticker. Her story went viral, and now, a Nissan dealership nearly 900 miles away is giving her a free LEAF.

Rizk, who owns Family Nissan just outside New York City, told Fox6 “We were frustrated, we were upset.” After gifting her the free vehicle, he added “We’re hoping this helps Makayla by saying we are with you. We got your back.”

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Rizk explained that although she lives in Wisconsin and the dealership is in New York, she’s still part of the Nissan family.

The LEAF wasn’t chosen by accident. “It wasn’t so much about giving her a car,” Rizk said, “It was about giving her an electric car that doesn’t need oil changes ever again.”

Starks is still in disbelief over the traumatic experience. Kunes fired the employee immediately, but “the incident with the oil change sticker happened so that was pretty painful and harmful,” she said.

However, “the universe shows up in kind of strange ways,” Starks added,” And I think the silver lining is that I’m unexpectedly getting a car out of all of this, which would be very helpful for my family.” Starks and her fiance, Joey Koepp, will use it as a fresh start.

She is flying to NY on Friday to officially pick up her new LEAF from Family Nissan and does not plan to keep the vehicle she bought from Kunes.