Tesla hypes ‘unsupervised full self-driving’ launch in June: here’s what it will actually launch
Tesla has started hyping its upcoming ‘unsupervised full self-driving’ launch in Austin in June. Let’s cut through the hype.
Here’s what Tesla will actually launch.
CEO Elon Musk has been talking about Tesla launching self-driving programs in Texas and California in Q2 2025 since last year.
Lately, he has turned Tesla’s focus to a specific paid ride-hailing service using self-driving in Austin, Texas in June. Here’s what he said precisely during Tesla’s last earnings call in January:
So, we’re going to be launching unsupervised full self-driving as a paid service in Austin in June. So, I talked to the team. We feel confident in being able to do an initial launch of unsupervised, no one in the car, full self-driving in Austin in June. We already have Teslas operating autonomously unsupervised full self-driving at our factory in Fremont, and we’ll soon be doing that at our factory in Texas.
The “unsupervised self-driving” operation in Fremont that Musk is referring to is simply Tesla’s vehicles driving themselves to loading areas at low speeds and on private roads – it’s a world of difference compared to operating unsupervised on public roads.
Speaking of the word “unsupervised,” it’s an important term that comes from Tesla’s telling owners that its “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) features require “supervision” at all times.
Therefore, going “unsupervised” is an critical step for Tesla and something that Musk promised would happen for all owners who bought its ‘FSD’ package every year for the last 6 years.
Now, Tesla is hyping the upcoming launch as “the future is autonomous and it starts in Austin, this June”:
With the launch coming within just a few months, there’s still a lot of confusion around what Tesla will actually launch in Austin.
What will Tesla actually launch in Austin
Based on all the information released to date, Tesla plans to have an internal vehicle fleet, consisting of its existing vehicle lineup, although some believe Tesla will also use its new Cybercab, offering a paid ride-hailing service (à la Uber) in a geo-fenced area around Austin.
This is a significant shift for Tesla, which has been promising that all its consumer vehicles built since 2016 have all the hardware necessary for unsupervised self-driving and that it would come through a future over-the-air software update.
Musk has claimed that Tesla would turn a switch and enable millions of robotaxis overnight.
At the same time, he has criticized Waymo’s strategy of deploying its system in mapped geo-fenced areas for being too difficult to scale.
However, Tesla’s upcoming launch in Austin is extremely similar to what Waymo has been operating for years, with the main difference being that Tesla only uses cameras while Waymo uses a full array of different sensors, including lidar.
Musk also said that the Austin service will be “unsupervised” with “no one in the car,” but those are not exactly the same.
While there might be no one in the cars, we reported that Tesla was looking to hire people to work in teleoperation to support its self-driving vehicles shortly after announcing its plan for unsupervised ride-hailing services in Texas and California last year.
This would suggest that Tesla will use teleoperation to at least “supervise” the fleet of vehicles to be deployed in Austin.
Electrek’s Take
It’s pretty funny that Tesla would claim “the future is autonomous and it starts in Austin, this June” after Elon claimed that autonomous driving was a “solved problem” 10 years ago.
Furthermore, Waymo has been operating in several cities for years the exact service that Tesla plans to launch in Austin, including in Austin itself, since earlier this year.
To be clear, I’m not saying that Tesla’s launch of this service is a bad thing; I’m just saying it is a massive pivot compared to what Tesla, and Elon in particular, have been claiming it would launch for years.
It feels like after being consistently wrong about when unsupervised self-driving is coming for the last 6 years, Elon needs a win, and this enables Tesla to claim that it delivered self-driving – even if it’s not the unsupervised self-driving in consumer vehicles that it has been promising owners for years.
It will help distract from the current mess that comes with the recent admission that the millions of HW3 vehicles on the road will not be capable of self-driving. I also think that HW4 vehicles are going to be next.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you combine a fruit cart, a cargo bike, and a Piaggio Ape all in one vehicle, now you’ve got your answer. I submit, for your approval, this week’s feature for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column – and it’s a beautiful doozie.
Feast your eyes on this salad slinging, coleslaw cruising, tuber taxiing produce chariot!
I think this electric vegetable trike might finally scratch the itch long felt by many of my readers. It seems every time I cover an electric trike, even the really cool ones, I always get commenters poo-poo-ing it for having two wheels in the rear instead of two wheels in the front. Well, here you go, folks!
Designed with two front wheels for maximum stability, this trike keeps your cucumbers in check through every corner. Because trust me, you don’t want to hit a pothole and suddenly be juggling peaches like you’re in Cirque du Soleil: Farmers Market Edition.
To avoid the extra cost of designing a linked steering system for a pair of front wheels, the engineers who brought this salad shuttle to life simply side-stepped that complexity altogether by steering the entire fixed front end. I’ve got articulating electric tractors that steer like this, and so if it works for a several-ton work machine, it should work for a couple hundred pounds of cargo bike.
Featuring a giant cargo bed up front with four cascading fruit baskets set up for roadside sales, this cargo bike is something of a blank slate. Sure, you could monetize grandma’s vegetable garden, or you could fill it with your own ideas and concoctions. Our exceedingly talented graphics wizard sees it as the perfect coffee and pastry e-bike for my new startup, The Handlebarista, and I’m not one to argue. Basically, the sky is the limit with a blank slate bike like this!
Sure, the quality doesn’t quite match something like a fancy Tern cargo bike. The rim brakes aren’t exactly confidence-inspiring, but at least there are three of them. And if they should all give out, or just not quite slow you down enough to avoid that quickly approaching brick wall, then at least you’ve got a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes as a tasty crumple zone.
The electrical system does seem a bit underpowered. With a 36V battery and a 250W motor, I don’t know if one-third of a horsepower is enough to haul a full load to the local farmer’s market. But I guess if the weight is a bit much for the little motor, you could always do some snacking along the way. On the other hand, all the pictures seem to show a non-electric version. So if this cart is presumably mobile on pedal power alone, then that extra motor assist, however small, is going to feel like a very welcome guest.
The $950 price is presumably for the electric version, since that’s what’s in the title of the listing, though I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. I’ve bought a LOT of stuff on Alibaba, including many electric vehicles, and the too-good-to-be-true price is always exactly that. In my experience, you can multiply the Alibaba price by 3-4x to get the actual landed price for things like these. Even so, $3,000-$4,000 wouldn’t be a terrible price, considering a lot of electric trikes stateside already cost that much and don’t even come with a quad-set of vegetable baskets on board!
I should also put my normal caveat in here about not actually buying one of these. Please, please don’t try to buy one of these awesome cargo e-trikes. This is a silly, tongue-in-cheek weekend column where I scour the ever-entertaining underbelly of China’s massive e-commerce site Alibaba in search of fun, quirky, and just plain awesomely weird electric vehicles. While I’ve successfully bought several fun things on the platform, I’ve also gotten scammed more than once, so this is not for the timid or the tight-budgeted among us.
That isn’t to say that some of my more stubborn readers haven’t followed in my footsteps before, ignoring my advice and setting out on their own wild journey. But please don’t be the one who risks it all and gets nothing in return. Don’t say I didn’t warn you; this is the warning.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Environment
Podcast: Trump/GOP go after EV/solar, Tesla, Ford, GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Trump’s Big Beautiful bill becoming law and going after EVs and solar, Tesla, Ford, and GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
Today’s episode is brought to you by Bosch Mobility Aftermarket—A global leader and trusted provider of automotive aftermarket parts. To celebrate Amazon Prime Day July 8th through 11th, Bosch Mobility is offering exclusive savings on must-have auto parts and tools. Learn more here.
The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.
Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:
- Electrek FSGP 2025: New teams, new cars, same solar spirit
- Congress votes to send 2 million US jobs to China, increase deficit, energy costs
- Tesla (TSLA) confirms 384,000 deliveries in Q2 2025, right on expectations
- Tesla prototype sparks speculation: a Model Y, maybe slightly smaller
- Tesla launches Oasis Supercharger with solar farm and off-grid batteries
- Tesla unveils its LFP battery factory, claims it’s almost ready
- Here’s why Ford’s electric vehicle sales crashed by nearly a third in Q2
- The Chevy Equinox EV is GM’s breakout star, but that’s not the only surprise
- Xpeng launches G7, a new Tesla Model Y competitor for just $27,000
Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET:
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike