- Tesla has a permit to run a transportation service in California.
- This is the first step on the long regulatory road to offering driverless taxi rides in the state.
- Tesla has not applied for the permits that would allow it to offer robotaxi rides in California.
Tesla was granted a permit from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to run a transportation service in the state. This is the first step in Tesla’s quest to offer driverless taxi rides in California, but there is still a long way to go until that happens.
As noted by TechCrunch, the American EV maker’s permit allows it to operate what is basically a shuttle service for employees with drivers behind the steering wheel. Tesla applied for the transport charter permit (TCP) in November 2024. According to the commission, this type of permit allows companies to offer prearranged transportation services like roundtrip sightseeing.
By contrast, Uber and Lyft, two companies that currently offer paid ride-hailing services in California, hold transportation network company (TNC) permits, these allow companies to connect drivers using their personal vehicles with paying passengers through an online application such as a smartphone app.
In Tesla’s case, it plans to use its newly granted permit to ferry employees on a prearranged basis in vehicles owned by the company, as per the permit application. It’s important to note that if Tesla wants to offer driverless ride-hailing services in California, it must seek permission from the state’s Public Utilities Commission and the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). However, the company has yet to do so.
For a company to offer robotaxi rides to paying customers, it must participate in CPUC’s Autonomous Vehicle Passenger Service Programs and it must hold a permit for autonomous vehicle testing and deployment from the DMV. According to state regulators, Tesla has not been granted authorization from the DMV to offer driverless rides for testing or deployment
Tesla’s vision for unsupervised autonomous taxis was broadly presented during last year’s Robotaxi event where the two-door Cybercab and art-deco Robovan were unveiled. Neither has a steering wheel or pedals, which makes them unusable under the current regulations for self-driving vehicles. Tesla is adamant that the two-seater Cybercab will go into production next year with a real-world range “close to” 300 miles, but until that happens, the company will use plain old Model 3 and Model Y EVs to kickstart its ride-hailing efforts in California and Texas this year.
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The Tesla Cybercab will have a battery smaller than 50 kilowatt-hours, according to Lars Moravy, the automaker’s VP of vehicle engineering. If this proves true when production starts, the Cybercab will become the most efficient EV in the world, with an InsideEVs-estimated efficiency of 6 miles/kilowatt-hour. That’s 50% better than the refreshed Model 3 Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive.
The Cybercab will not have a conventional charging port. Instead, Tesla insists on using a wireless charging pad that could, in theory, provide up to 25 kW of power.
