Tesla Robotaxi After years of bold claims and blown deadlines, Tesla has officially begun offering driverless rides in its 2025 Model Y SUVs — marking a cautious but headline-grabbing debut for its long-promised robotaxi service. The pilot, now live in South Austin, represents CEO Elon Musk’s first real-world test of his bet on vision-only autonomy powered by end-to-end AI. CEO Elon Musk took to X (formerly Twitter) to congratulate the Tesla AI software and chip design teams, calling the achievement the “culmination of a decade of hard work.” Story continues below Advertisement Remove Ad The milestone is especially significant as both Tesla’s AI software and custom hardware teams were built from scratch — entirely in-house— underscoring Musk’s long-held belief in vertical integration as the key to technological dominance. “Super congratulations to the @Tesla_AI software & chip design teams on a successful @Robotaxi launch!! Both the AI chip and software teams were built from scratch within Tesla,” Musk posted. Tesla AI senior engineering manager Srihari Sampathkumar echoed the sentiment, calling the launch the result of “a decade of hard work on building the best AI software and hardware,” and expressing gratitude for being part of the mission. Musk replied directly, crediting Sampathkumar and his team for maximising the performance of the Tesla AI computer, stating: “Robotaxi wouldn’t be possible yet without that.” Related stories