Tesla Readies a Taxi Service in San Francisco—but Not With Robotaxis

Tesla is in public Its future stacked RobotaxisThe Now the company plans to launch a public car service in San Francisco Bay. Tesla This is a “robotuxi” service, but legally, this one has to use cars with human drivers.

The plan has been put into the country’s most viewed autonomous vehicle industry in a US state – where Tesla is already being sued for confusing language around its driver assistance technology.

On Friday, a spokesman for the California Public Utilities Commission, which controlled ride-helling and taxi services in the state, said that Tesla told the agency on Thursday that they planned only one employee-taxi service for friends and employees’ families and public members. Technically, Tesla is legally clearly clear to introduce this type of service in California: In March, it received A “Transport Charter Party” Allows Tesla workers to go on a pre -ritual trip with the driver behind the wheels. However Tesla is Not It has been legally allowed to operate an autonomous vehicle -based service.

“Tesla is not allowed to test or transport the public (without pay or pay) in one [autonomous vehicle] With or without the driver, “CPUC spokesman Terry Prosper wrote in an email.” Tesla has been allowed to transport the public (pay or unpaid) in a non-autonomous vehicle, which must have a driver. “

Business insider First report The Tesla staff told staff that they plan to launch a “robotuxi” service in the Bay area early Friday.

On Wednesday, AI software Ashok Eluswami Tesla Vice President said that Tesla Bay was “working with the government for approval” to launch Tesla Bay. “Meanwhile, we will launch service with a person in the driver’s seat while we wait for the regulatory approval,” he said.

Legally, however, Tesla is currently not allowed to launch any kind of service with autonomous vehicles, which means that the person in the driver’s seat should be the driver. “Tesla is not allowed to pilot autonomous vehicles with the protective driver, even with the protective driver,” it cannot use driver’s autonomous cars in passenger services. “

Tesla seems to be talking outside both sides here. The company emphasized that it was only operating a taxi service in California, while the new taxi service uses “robotaxis” and autonomous. The car maker seems to have used the technique before. It Currently in the Administrative Court California states that Tesla has been misleading consumers for selling technologies using languages such as “Autopilot” and “Complete Self-Driving” for years, but will not always run by a human driver.

Philip Copman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, studying autonomous vehicle protection, said, “Tesla cannot be in both ways. Auto maker is giving more ammunition to” false advertising cases in California when they say that it is not the regulators. “