Tesla has kicked off early operations of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) ride-hailing service for employees in Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area, marking a significant step toward its goal of launching paid autonomous rides this summer.
The company made the announcement on Wednesday via a post on X (formerly Twitter), revealing that the pilot programme has already completed over 1,500 trips, covering more than 15,000 miles.
“This service helps us develop and validate FSD networks, the mobile app, vehicle allocation, mission control, and remote assistance operations,” Tesla stated.
The development comes shortly after Tesla’s Q1 earnings call on Tuesday, where CEO Elon Musk reaffirmed plans to launch the commercial version of the autonomous ride service in June, starting with a limited fleet of Model Y vehicles in Austin.
