Tesla’s Robotaxi launch in San Francisco turns out to be regular human-driven taxi service

After getting the autonomous fleet up and working in Austin, Tesla has hit a roadblock with the Robotaxi launch in San Francisco, as it turns out to be just a regular human-driven taxi service.

Tesla is gearing up for quite the comeback in the next year or so, with the Robotaxi fleet expanding and its upcoming Roadster edging closer to completion.

But the autonomous vehicles that are currently running in Texas appear to be the golden ticket for success in Tesla’s future.

So it comes as quite a bitter pill to swallow to learn that the Robotaxi launch in San Francisco appears to just be a standard cabbie service with a driver behind the wheel.

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Tesla dealt a huge blow with Robotaxi launch in San Francisco

The Robotaxi has been quite the headline-catcher following its launch in Austin, Texas.

Aside from a hiccup here and there, the full self-driving electric vehicle taxi service has come with some glowing reviews.

Now, the taxi service has been tested out in San Francisco, debuting on July 26th.

However, this was not the same service as was offered in Texas. In fact, there’s nothing robo about this taxi fleet at all.

The Robotaxi launch in San Francisco was actually just a regular cabbie driving around in branded Model Ys, after the State of California deemed that Tesla didn’t have a license for autonomous vehicles.

In fact, Reuters claimed that Tesla hasn’t even applied for the license.

Instead, the cars will serve as a ‘chauffeur-style service operated by human drivers’, AKA, a taxi service.

Users who had signed up for the Robotaxi service in California were sent a notification that read:

“If your ride is taking place in California, it is being conducted with a safety driver using Full Self-Driving (Supervised) pursuant to authority from the California Public Utilities Commission.”

No Tesla, no problem, San Fran!

Technically, the Tesla cars will drive themselves. Full self-driving mode (FSD) will be switched on, but the ‘chauffeur’ will be on hand at any time to take over.

But if the reason that you wanted to take an autonomous Tesla was to get away from cabbie small talk on your commute, well, San Francisco locals could easily opt for Waymo vehicles instead.

As the leader in the autonomous sector, Waymo has successfully launched in LA, San Francisco, Austin, and will soon launch in Miami.

For Tesla, the company still sits pretty as the second-biggest autonomous vehicle supplier in the United States.

But in order to keep expanding, it might need to get a bit more hands-on with the permit department.

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