Elon Musk says Tesla Robotaxis without safety monitors is now testing on the streets of Austin – Jalopnik

If you live in Austin, Texas, I recommend you brace for impact. If a recent report from Tesla CEO Elon Musk is to be believed, the automaker is now testing its robotaxis without human supervision on city streets. The fully self-driving vehicles fulfill an earlier promise Musk made to remove safety monitors from his fleet of autonomous Model Ys by the end of 2025.

A user on X, the everything app, called “420 Bounty Hunter” posted a video showing one of these Model Ys driving through Austin on December 14th, and as far as we can tell, no one is in it, including the safety monitor. It was then reposted by Musk megafan DogeDesigner, And Musk responded on that message, simply saying, “Testing is ongoing with no occupants in the car.”

Tests are conducted without any occupants in the car

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2025

Tesla himself too replied to another repost of the video with the caption “Just saying.” His AI chief quoted the same messagesaying, “And so it begins!” The automaker also made two separate tweets, which I assume refer to the video. The first was: “The fleet will wake up via an over-the-air software update”, and then it is posted (more cryptic): “Slowly, then all at once.” Of course, this is either a misquote of Earnest Hemingway’s famous line, “Gradually, then suddenly,” or whoever runs Tesla’s X, the everything app, account is a big fan of John Green.

Apparently the tests are quite limited. People apparently used their Tesla apps to order robotaxis from the company to see if there were any safety drivers left in the cars, and guess what? According to Business Insider, there were.

There are now 31 Tesla robotaxis in Austin, up from 29 in November Robotaxi trackerwhich is run by robotaxi watcher Ethan McKenna from Austin. The goal, Musk says, is to have a fleet of 500 cars in Austin by the end of the year. I’m not sure if you guys have checked your calendars lately, but there isn’t much year left. During a video call at xAI’s “hackathon” event last week, Musk said Tesla would remove human safety monitors from its robot axis by the end of the year, according to Business insider.

I’ll tell you what, I’m not sure that’s such a great idea. We’ve reported numerous cases of these Model Ys crashing into things, messing up traffic, being investigated by the FBI, and parking in a fire lane. Note that the company moved the safety monitor to the driver’s seat in September.