Tesla prepares a taxi service in San Francisco, but not with robotaxis

Tesla has publicly I score his future on his robotasses. Now the company has planned to launch a public car service in the San Francisco bay. Tesla calls it a “robotaxi” service, but legally this will have to use cars with human drivers.

The plan seems to put the electric car manufacturer in dark legal waters in an American state with the narrowest autonomous autonomous industry in the country and where Tesla is already in court for a misleading language around its driving assistance technology.

On Friday, a spokesman for California Public Utilities Commission, who regulates the running and taxi services in the State, said that Tesla informed the agency Thursday who planned to expand a taxi service only for employees for friends and family members of employees and “selected” members of the public. Technically, Tesla is legally clear to launch this type of service in California: in March, he obtained a “transport card party” permit to bring Tesla employees to pre -rage trips with a driver on the steering wheel. But Tesla is Not Legally authorized to manage a service based on autonomous vehicles.

“Tesla is not authorized to test or transport the public (paid or not paid) in a [autonomous vehicle] With or without a driver, “wrote the spokesman for the CPUC Terrie Prosper in an e-mail.” Tesla is authorized to transport the public (paid or not paid) in a non -autonomous vehicle, which, of course, would have a driver. “

Business Insider For the first time That Tesla told the employees who planned to launch a “robotaxi” service in the Bay Area already on Friday.

In a call of earnings on Wednesday with investors, the Vice -President of Tesla of the Ashok Elluswamy software said Tesla is “working with the government to obtain approval” to be launched in the Bay Area. “In the meantime, we will launch the service with a person instead of driving just to accelerate while we wait for regulatory approval,” he said.

Legally, however, Tesla is not currently authorized to launch any type of service with autonomous vehicles, which means that “the person at the driver’s seat” must be a driver. Tesla has no permission to pilot the technology of autonomous vehicles even with a security driver, Prosper says: “So he cannot use an autonomous vehicle with driving in the passenger service”.

Tesla seems to speak on both sides of his mouth here. The company seems to insist with the regulators who are simply managing a taxi service in California, at the same time suggesting to shareholders and Wall Street that the new taxi service uses “robotasses” and is autonomous. The car manufacturer seems to have used the technique before. AND Currently in administrative court With the state of California for the accusations that Tesla has deceived consumers for years using a language such as “automatic pilot” and “complete self -control” to sell technologies that cannot guide itself, but must be supervised by a human driver at any time.

“Tesla could not have it in both ways,” says Philip Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies the autonomous safety of vehicles. The car manufacturer “is giving more ammunition to California for the false advertising cause insisting on the fact that it is a robotaxi when they tell the regulators that it is not actually”.