Tesla CEO Elon Musk said his company plans to launch a trial run of robotaxis in Austin by the end of June and may expand to thousands.
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Tesla is ready to shift gears into the future
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CEO Elon Musk confirmed to CNBC on Tuesday that the company will launch its first fleet of robo-taxis next month
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starting in Austin, Texas, with plans to expand to major cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco
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The rollout starts small, just 10 vehicles hitting Austin streets by the end of June
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But if all goes well, Musk says Tesla could scale up to thousands of autonomous taxis
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It's been a long time coming for Tesla investors. They've been promised self-driving tech is coming since 2016
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Now Musk says they're taking a cautious approach, and other automakers are paying attention
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There are a number of major automakers that have talked to us about licensing self-driving
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and we're very much open to that. Um, so, uh, I think the more, the more we demonstrate the capability of self-driving
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the more that they will want to license it. Um, and, um, and we're, we're happy to help
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Tesla is starting with Model Y vehicles as RoboTaxi is equipped with its new full self-driving
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unsupervised technology. The move comes as Alphabet's Waymo reports 250,000 driverless rides per week across U.S. cities, including Phoenix and San Francisco. Musk's cautious
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approach to a rollout of robo comes when the public is reportedly skeptical of driverless technology It also happening as the industry faces scrutiny Last year GM cruise unit was
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fined $1.5 million after one of its driverless vehicles struck a pedestrian in San Francisco
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According to AAA, just 13 percent of American drivers feel trust riding and self-driving
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vehicles, though that's an increase from just nine percent last year. Tesla's tech will also
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look different. Unlike Waymo, which used high-end sensors such as LIDAR and radar, Tesla is relying
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mostly on cameras and AI. Musk also addressed his focus on Tesla this week, saying he's steering
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away from political donations for now. In terms of political spending, I'm going to do a lot less
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in the future. And why is that? I think I've done enough. Musk's comment comes amid backlash over
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his political donations, including hundreds of millions to President Trump's re-election campaign
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and his involvement in DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, which has led to mass
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layoffs of federal workers. The controversy has spurred boycotts and protests, and Tesla sales
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have slipped. Still, Musk tells Bloomberg he's not going anywhere. He plans to focus fully on Tesla
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for the next five years, saying there's no doubt about that. For more unbiased updates
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