Mr Viral
Tesla’s Robotaxi launch day is finally here and below is a series of updates (most recent at the top) of the content shared from the launch in Austin, Texas today.
Elon Musk shares congratulations
Today is a massive day for the Tesla AI team, having launched the service they’ve been developing for years. Head of Tesla, Elon Musk has now shared his congratulations and thanks to the hardware and software teams that made today possible.
Super congratulations to the @Tesla_AI software & chip design teams on a successful @Robotaxi launch!!
Culmination of a decade of hard work.
Both the AI chip and software teams were built from scratch within Tesla.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 22, 2025
Tesla shares the first robotaxi experiences
The official Tesla account is sharing the first robotaxi experiences in a thread to their 23.9 Million followers. This currently includes Zack (@BLKMDL3).
Kimbal approval
Elon Musk’s brother and fellow Tesla board member, Kimbal Musk has shared his congratulations to the Tesla team on today’s Robotaxi launch.
No Tips
Zack has shared a quick video of the app experience, when you complete a tip, you get to provide a rating (out of 5 lightning bolts), a comment and the option to leave a tip. As with most services in America, you can pay additional in the form of a tip. The video shows him attempting to leave a tip, but Tesla is clearly not expecting that today, instead showing a fun image of a Cyber-themed Hedgehog.
Tesla has typically shown a hedgehog after vehicle purchase on their website.
Robotaxi Tips
I like how Tesla has included instructions on how to open the door. Common knowledge for Tesla owners, but there will be people getting into a Tesla for the first time with Robotaxi.
The rider experience
Sawyer has shared a video of the rider experience. When you get in the back of a Robotaxi, the rear screen welcomes you.. “Welcome Sawyer”.
Robotaxi HQ
Head of Autopilot, Ashok Elluswamy has shared a photo from inside Tesla, this provides an insight into the experience for the engineering team that has worked hard for years to make today possible.
With billions of dollars invested, now the engineers get to monitor their work from Robotaxi HQ.
On one of the displays, it lists 112 rides, 4999 miles, and 35 (possibly cars that have contributed data).
Livestreams
Tesla’s Robotaxi service is now officially live for consumers. There’s a number of people live streaming their experience.
Rear-screen
Zack has shared the rear-screen on the robotaxi.
First Tesla Robotaxi rides for customers are happening.
Georestriction
The initial service area looks quite small, now the game is to see how fast Tesla can scale this area. Based on this overlay, it looks like Tesla has launched with about half of the Waymo service area in Austin, Texas.
Tesla Robotaxi Mobile App is out
More sightings of Tesla Robotaxis
Tesla are being fairly subtle about the branding on the robotaxi, with the logo placed on each side of the vehicle in the Robotaxi font. Given hailing these will be done via the app, there’s not really a reason to make this overt, like someone visually waving down a taxi.
Robotaxi mobile app
Greggertruck has shared a screenshot of the dedicated Robotaxi app. There’s no screenshots yet, but we’re expecting this to go out in the next hour or so to Early Access Riders.
New Tesla Robotaxi account on X
There’s a brand new Tesla Robotaxi account on X that is probably worth a follow if you want updates about the service as it rolls out across America and the world.
Tesla Robotaxi Web Page
A dedicated page on Tesla’s website is now live at https://www.tesla.com/robotaxi. This is pretty basic so far, but does formalise the launch of the service. This also confirms the UI for Robotaxi will be a standard interface, rather than the dev mode we seen in recent days for employees.
This also includes a link to a support page for Robotaxi that details the terms and conditions of the service (currently in Early Access).
Pricing
Tesla has confirm the pricing for rides during the Early Access Program will be a flat fee of $4.20. This means the financial chain of events is in place.. It also means Tesla hasn’t decided on the formula for paid rides (distance, time etc).
This means we can’t compare or get insight into robotaxi price comparisons at this stage.
The @Tesla_AI robotaxi launch begins in Austin this afternoon with customers paying a $4.20 flat fee!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 22, 2025
