Elon Musk Says Driverless Tesla Robotaxi Drove Him Around Austin With No Safety Monitor

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has claimed that a driverless Robotaxi drove him around Austin as the billionaire's end-of-the-year driverless goal draws closer.

Robotaxi Without Safety Monitors

Taking to the social media platform X on Wednesday, the CEO shared that he was in a Robotaxi being driven autonomously. "A Tesla with no safety monitor in the car and me sitting in the passenger seat took me all around Austin on Sunday with perfect driving," Musk said in the post.

Tesla Breaking The Speed Limit?

Tesla's AI lead, Ashok Elluswamy, also took to X in a response to Musk's post, where he shared a video from inside a Tesla Robotaxi in Austin. "It's an amazing experience!" He said. The video showed a Tesla driving autonomously in Austin with no safety monitors and Elluswamy in the back seat.

It's worth noting that the video showcased the car apparently breaking the speed limit as it hit speeds of up to 37 mph in a 30 mph zone, which could raise questions about the Robotaxi's safety before it is rolled out to the general public. Concerns about the system’s safety have been previously raised by The Dawn Project founder Dan O’Dowd.

Elon Musk Says Tesla's Software Has Grown

Recently, a user on the social media platform X had shared Tesla's former AI lead, Andrej Karpathy's take on the EV giant's software when compared with Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Waymo. Musk, in response, outlined that the company's software had grown significantly since Karpathy's departure from Tesla. He shared that Karpathy's understanding of Tesla software was "dated."

Meanwhile, chipmaker Nvidia Corp.'s (NASDAQ:NVDA) head of Robotics also recently hailed Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) system, sharing that the system was accurate enough that one couldn't tell if "a neural net or a human drove you home."

It's also worth noting that the company’s Robotaxi operations in Austin could actually be smaller in scale than what was originally planned, according to a Robotaxi tracker developed by an engineering student at Texas A&M University, which identified over 32 Robotaxis owned by Tesla.

Tesla Eyes Europe FSD Expansion

Tesla is eyeing an expansion of the FSD technology in Europe, with Dutch auto regulator RDW (Netherlands Vehicle Authority) confirming that the company was collaborating with the agency to work towards deploying the technology in the European region by February 2026.

Tesla scores well on the Momentum and Quality metrics, but offers poor Value. It also has a favorable price trend in the Short, Medium and Long term. For more such insights, sign up for Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings today!

Price Action: According to Benzinga Pro data, TSLA slid 0.23% to $484.26 during the after-hours trading session on December 24.

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