Musk Bets Cabs Will Lift Tesla After Boycotts, Sales Fall

Musk Seems to Be on the Verge of Making Robotaxis a Reality, Testing a Small Squad of Self-Driving Cabs in Austin, Texas

- AP [e-mail] NEW YORK

Elon Musk promised in 2019 that driverless Tesla "robotaxis" would be on the road "next year," but it didn't happen. A year later, he promised to deliver them the next year, but that didn't happen either.

Despite the empty pledges, the promises kept coming. Last year in January, he said, "Next year for sure, we'll have over a million robotaxis."

Musk appears to be on the verge of making his robotaxi vision a reality with a test run of a small squad of self-driving cabs in Austin, Texas, starting Sunday. Reaching a million may take a year or more, however, although the billionaire should be able to expand the service this year if the Austin demo is a success.

While Musk was making "next year" promises, rival Waymo was deploying driverless taxis in Los Angeles, San Diego, Austin and other cities using different technology. It just completed its 10 millionth paid ride.