Tesla says customers can add their own vehicles to the robotaxi fleet next year — will it happen?

{"heading_1":"Tesla's Q2 2027 Deadline","subheading_1":"Ashok Elluswamy's Statement","content_1":"Tesla VP for Autonomous Driving Ashok Elluswamy announced that Tesla owners will be able to add their own vehicles to the company’s robotaxi fleet in the second quarter of 2027. The only additional requirement is to make sure that the customer vehicle can be part of the geofences and fleet management that Tesla has for it to be fully autonomous.","subheading_2":"History of Missed Deadlines","content_2":"Elon Musk has a history of setting bold, short-term deadlines for autonomous driving and robotaxis, but these often slip by years or never happen. For example, in 2019, Musk promised that customer-owned vehicles could be used as part of a “Tesla Network” of robotaxis by 2020.","subheading_3":"FSD Growth and Robotaxi Fleet","content_3":"FSD growth was a bright spot in Tesla’s earnings this quarter. More people buying new Teslas in North America are choosing to add Full Self-Driving (Supervised), the company reported. Over 75 percent of new buyers picked the feature this quarter, a big jump of almost 20 percentage points compared to last quarter.","subheading_4":"Regulatory Hurdles and Legal Challenges","content_4":"Unsupervised autonomous ride-hailing requires specific local and state regulatory permits. Insurance may be difficult to obtain. In most places, it’s still illegal for individuals or outside companies to use their own self-driving cars as driverless taxis or passenger rides."}