The automaker currently has the approval to test autonomous vehicles with a safety driver in California, but does not have a permit for driverless testing or operations from the state's Department of Motor Vehicles, which would be needed to apply for a driverless taxi service in the state.
In November, Tesla applied for a transportation charter-party carrier permit from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), according to an agency spokesperson. That classification means Tesla would own and control a fleet of vehicles, but is separate from the CPUC's autonomous vehicle permits.
Tesla would still need to apply for and receive a permit to operate an autonomous passenger service, according to the CPUC.
Tesla would need additional permits from the California DMV and CPUC in order to operate the service without safety drivers in the vehicles, or to charge customers.
He added that Tesla would roll out driverless ride-hailing services to the public in California and Texas this year, without offering more specific details.
Musk in January said Tesla would begin offering “autonomous ride-hailing for money” in Austin this June, and said Tesla would release an “unsupervised” version of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver-assistance system in California this year, without offering more information.
However, with autonomous technology proving harder and more expensive to solve, industry experts have warned it could take Tesla several years to commercialize a robotaxi.
Bloomberg News first reported the Tesla application to California regulators. (Reporting by Chris Kirkham in Los Angeles, Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Juby Babu in Mexico City.
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