Texas billionaire Elon Musk’s driverless cars have been spotted around Texas’ Capital City over the past year, but now the autonomous vehicle company has officially said they’re there to stay. Tesla announced earlier this week that it has rolled out its unsupervised Robotaxis in the entire Austin metro area.
The company’s progress in the Capital City comes as Musk seeks to ramp up Tesla’s autonomous ride-hailing operation including widening the adoption of its full self-driving software, which is key to the company’s growth strategy on artificial intelligence and robotics.
In May, Musk said he expects fully self-driving cars without human safety monitors to become more widespread in the U.S. later this year, after already being introduced in Texas, Reuters reports. That same month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requested details on the number of Tesla vehicles planned in the robotaxi fleet across a 12-month and 24-month operational period, as well any locations expected to be operational during the same time spans. Officials are also investigating how Tesla’s overall system sensors, cameras and full self-driving autopilot features will be monitored and supervised for optimal safety.
The administration assigned Tesla a June 19 deadline to submit the requested information, but it’s unclear if the company has complied.