Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk expects the company to remove the onboard safety operators from the EV giant's Robotaxi operations in Austin, Texas, by the end of the year.
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Tesla Being Cautious About Robotaxi Deployment
Speaking to analysts and investors during the EV giant's third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, Musk shared updates on the company's timeline for removing onboard safety drivers from Robotaxis.
"We are expecting to have no safety drivers in at least large parts of Austin by the end of this year," adding that Tesla was being "very cautious" with the deployment of the Robotaxi.
"Even one accident will be front-page headline news worldwide. It’s better for us to take a cautious approach here," Musk said, adding that the company expects to have no safety operators in the car in the next few months.
Elon Musk Tracks Back On Major Robotaxi Goal
Musk also outlined that Tesla is targeting expanding Robotaxi operations to multiple locations in the U.S. "We do expect to be operating robotaxi in, I think, about eight to ten metro areas by the end of the year. It depends on various regulatory approvals," adding that most of the approvals are "online."
"We expect to be operating in Nevada, Florida, and Arizona by the end of the year," Musk said. Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's Director of Autopilot Software, added that the Robotaxi had covered over 250 million miles in Austin and over 1 million miles in the San Francisco Bay Area. "On the customer side, we have FSD supervised for a total of 6 billion miles as of yesterday," Elluswamy said.
It's worth noting that expanding to eight to ten cities in the U.S. is significantly less than Musk's earlier comments, which targeted serving over 50% of the population of the U.S. with Tesla's Robotaxi. Tesla currently operates Robotaxis in Austin as well as a ride-hailing service in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Elon Musk Calls ISS, Glass Lewis ‘Corporate Terrorists'
Musk also criticized proxy advisory firms International Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis for opposing Tesla's $1 trillion CEO pay packet, calling the firms "corporate terrorists" during the earnings call. He also accused them of advising investors to vote on "random political lines."
Meanwhile, Tesla's Board of Directors Chair Robyn Denholm urged investors to vote in favor of the pay package for Musk, criticizing the advisory firms' "misguided" and "one-size-fits-all" approach towards the upcoming vote set to take place during November's shareholder meeting.
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