Texas lawmakers have formally requested that Tesla delay its deliberate Robotaxi launch in Austin by a couple of months attributable to a brand new regulation being applied.
It’s a Godsend for Elon Musk.
As we beforehand reported, Tesla’s deliberate Robotaxi launch in Austin, Texas, now “tentatively” scheduled for June 22, is a shifting of the aim submit for Tesla.
CEO Elon Musk himself has beforehand described what Tesla plans to launch as “probably not self-driving”, however the CEO is utilizing the brand new technique as a technique to declare a win in autonomous driving after years of missed deadlines and failed guarantees.
Since final 12 months, Musk has mentioned launching the service in Austin this summer time. For the previous couple of months, he had indicated that it will occur in June, with the June twenty second date being formally shared final week.
For Musk to say his win, Tesla would wish to stay to the deadline, which might be a primary for Tesla in terms of its autonomous driving roadmap.
Nonetheless, Texas lawmakers have simply given Tesla an out.
A gaggle of seven Austin-based lawmakers within the Texas Senate and Home have signed a letter asking Tesla to delay its launch till September:
As members of the Austin delegation within the Texas Senate and Texas Home of Representatives, we’re formally requesting that Tesla delay autonomous robotaxi operations till the brand new regulation takes impact on September I, 2025. We imagine that is in the perfect curiosity of each public security and constructing public belief in Tesla’s operations. If Tesla opts to proceed with the June 22, 2025, launch date, we request that you simply reply to this letter with detailed data demonstrating that Tesla shall be compliant with the brand new regulation upon the launch of driverless operations in Austin.
Texas has had only a few rules affecting autonomous driving, and the brand new regulation maintains this establishment. Nonetheless, it additionally introduces necessities for following federal pointers, and the most recent model of the invoice references SAE autonomous driving ranges.
It doesn’t sound just like the lawmakers are forcing Tesla to delay the launch for now. They’re extra politely asking to delay till the brand new framework is in place.
right here’s the total letter from the Texas lawmakers:
Electrek’s Take
This seems to be a Godsend for Tesla and Musk. Even with the considerably diminished scope of this system in comparison with what Tesla has promised for years, and the truth that Waymo has been doing precisely what Tesla is making an attempt to perform for years, it seems that Tesla is having difficulties delivering on that.
As we beforehand reported, testing with out a security driver has been extraordinarily restricted based mostly on sightings, and it seems that Tesla has merely relocated the “security driver” to the passenger seat with a kill change for optics.
Now, Tesla can declare that it has to delay the launch to please the regulators slightly than as a result of it’s not prepared.
There’s additionally NHTSA, which put a deadline for at this time for Tesla to reply a bunch of questions on its deliberate Robotaxi launch in Austin. So, that might additionally play a job.
Now, let’s see if Tesla takes the out or decides to maneuver ahead. For everybody’s sake, I hope they take the out.
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