Tesla Could Launch Robotaxi Service As Early As Next Year, Deutsche Bank Reports

Deutsche Bank recently released a report after a meeting with Tesla's Head of Investor Relations, Travis Axelrod, stating Tesla's goal to launch its autonomous taxi (Robotaxi) service. This service will initially be provided by the company's own fleet, with safety support from human remote operators.

Tesla to Introduce Robotaxi Service Next Year

Deutsche Bank analysts, following their meeting with Travis Axelrod, reaffirmed that Tesla plans to launch lower-priced cars in the first half of next year and introduce other models later this year.

Deutsche Bank highlighted that Tesla aims to roll out the Robotaxi service in California and Texas first, setting this target earlier this year.

The report stated that Tesla considers it a reasonable assumption that for safety/redundancy purposes, at least in the initial stages, some type of remote operator will be necessary... Management intends to start entirely with the company's own fleet (providing the Robotaxi service), utilizing Tesla's in-house ride-hailing application.

Deutsche Bank believes that the initial phase of the Robotaxi service, assisted by remote human operators, is reasonable and has raised Tesla's target stock price from $295 to $370.

Tesla Hiring Teleoperation Team

In fact, recent weeks have seen reports indicating that Tesla plans to hire a remote human team for its Robotaxi fleet to troubleshoot operational failures. The Tesla website currently features this job listing.

The job posting reads Tesla AI's Teleoperation team is charged with providing remote access to our robotaxis and humanoid robots. Our cars and robots operate autonomously in challenging environments. As we iterate on the AI that powers them, we need the ability to access and control them remotely.

The job posting also adds that such a remote operation center needs to build a highly optimized, low-latency reliable data stream, allowing remote operators to access autonomous taxis through state-of-the-art VR equipment.

Tesla is not the first autonomous taxi company to utilize this remote human assistance approach. Earlier reports indicated that Cruise, an autonomous taxi company under General Motors, also uses remote human assistants to troubleshoot vehicle failures (these vehicles reportedly experience failures roughly every six to eight kilometers). Google's Waymo is believed to employ the same method, and so is Amazon's Zoox autonomous taxi company.