Tesla wants to take Robotaxis to San Francisco. This is what stands in the way. | Techcrunch

Tesla is launching an even more limited version of its early Robotaxi service in San Francisco this weekend, According to Business InsiderAfter a first rollout started last month in Austin, Texas.

The company plans to send invitations to Tesla owners to test the service, according to the report.

Depending on how and or Tesla continues, his actions can violate the state regulations – and even if there is a human safety driver behind the wheel while his vehicles work autonomously.

Two government agencies regulate aspects of autonomous vehicles in California. The California Department of Motor Vehicles controls the testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles and requires permits for all three phases: testing with a driver, testing without a driver and the implementation without a driver.

Tesla has a permit for testing autonomous vehicles with a human security operator behind the wheel. It does not have a permit for testing or implementation without a director. And from Wednesday, according to the DMV, it had not yet applied for extra permits. (Mercedes-Benz, Nuro and Waymo are the only three companies that have a deployment without a director without a director.)

Neither Tesla has the correct permits of the California Public Utilities Commission, which controls the commercial aspects of riding hailing and chartered transport by people, as well as those driven by autonomous vehicle systems.

Tesla has a transport Charter party permit, with which a human driver can control a traditional vehicle (no AV) for charter services with the public, CPUC spokesperson Terries Prosper Techcrunch said in an e -mail.

This clearly differs from an autonomous vehicle permit for passenger transport, according to Prosper. So-called AV authorizations that Tesla does not have, makes testing and deploying autonomous vehicles with or without a driver possible.

Tesla has not received an approval from the CPUC to offer, paid or unpaid, with or without a director (nor the company applied), explained in the e -mail. Tesla also has no “director pilot AV permit” from the CPUC, so it cannot even use an autonomous vehicle with a human operator behind the wheel for passenger service.

This means that if Tesla will use its robotaxis and the autonomous systems are called in, this will violate state regulations, even if the journeys are free and there is a human security operator behind the wheel.

The push in California comes when the DMV is currently trying Stop Tesla to sell vehicles In the state as part of a years of lawsuit about the promises that the company has made about the self -driving skills of his cars. Tesla is also Currently rightly right in a lawsuit About dead related to the use of his less compatible driver assistance system, Autopilot.

Tesla must also prove that its full self-driving software can be used to power a robotaxi network. Although the company has carried out a single invitation version of its robotaxi service in Austin since 22 June, it is far removed from what Musk has plagued for years.

The service is usually limited to the inner city of Austin and the most important corridors. There is a safety operator on the front passenger seat that can intervene if the car is about to do something wrong or dangerous. Although the service is launched by around 10 vehicles, it is not clear how many model Y SUVs are in the city, nor is it clear how often those security operators have had to intervene.

That is far removed from the “general solution” of which Musk said Tesla has been working for ten years. Musk was once so confident in the autonomous software that Tesla developed that he said it would take a car from Los Angeles to New York – a stunt that never happened. Musk said this week that Tesla is also trying to expand to Florida and Arizona. Techcrunch reported earlier this month that Tesla had started the required certification process to test and work with and without a director in Arizona.

UPDATE: This story has been updated with new information from the CPUC.