By Akash Sriram and Abhirup Roy
(Reuters) -Tesla has sent out invitations to a small group of people to join the limited test of its robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, which is tentatively set to start on Sunday, according to posts and email screenshots on social media.
The invitations said a Tesla employee will accompany riders in the front passenger seat, the posts showed.
A successful trial in Austin will be crucial for Tesla, as car buyers shun the company following its CEO Elon Musk’s embrace of hard-right politics in the U.S. and worldwide.
The company has shifted from building a cheaper EV platform to robotics and artificial intelligence. Much of the company’s valuation rests on that bet.
Musk has said he will focus on safety in the trial, with humans remotely monitoring the vehicles. He has said he expects to be able to scale the robotaxi quickly.
Tesla plans to deploy around 10 Model Y SUVs that run on a version of Tesla’s full self-driving driver assistance software, Musk has said.
The start could be delayed and the service might be limited or unavailable in bad weather. Riders have to be aged 18 or above to take a ride.
“Tesla is rolling out the Robotaxi service extremely cautiously, which is good. Baby steps,” posted Omar Qazi, an X.com user with 635,100 followers who posts often about Tesla using the handle @WholeMarsBlog and received an invite. “Very much so,” CEO Elon Musk responded.
But commercializing autonomous vehicles is an expensive, risky process. Tesla and others such as Alphabet’s Waymo and Amazon’s Zoox have faced federal investigations and recalls following collisions.
Industry experts have questioned the efficacy of Tesla’s self-driving technology that depends mostly on cameras and AI, without redundant sensors such as lidar and radar, claiming fog, heavy rain, and glaring sunlight can hamper safety.
On Wednesday, a group of Democratic lawmakers from the Austin area called on the company to delay the rollout until September, when a new state law governing autonomous vehicles takes effect.
Users who confirm their presence in Austin can download Tesla’s Robotaxi app, which they use to call a vehicle.
“Through this exclusive preview, you’ll have the opportunity to provide valuable feedback on our Robotaxi service,” one of the screenshots showed. Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the screenshots.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Abhirup Roy in San Francisco, Editing by Peter Henderson and Louise Heavens)
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