Tesla spins up robotaxi pilots in Orlando and Tampa ahead of Q2 earnings

In Brief

Tesla has brought an unspecified number of its unsupervised Model Y SUVs to Orlando and Tampa, just one day ahead of the company’s scheduled second-quarter earnings call. That marks the third city in Florida where Tesla is trialing its nascent robotaxi service, following a small launch in Miami a few weeks ago.

The two new cities appear to have fairly small operational areas, and Tesla did not offer any further details about the launch. As some fans have noticed, Tesla announced autonomous fleets in Dallas and Houston before its first-quarter earnings release but has yet to scale those operations. The company disbanded its press office years ago.

Tesla has taken a far slower approach to standing up a commercial robotaxi service than it has promised investors. CEO Elon Musk, for instance, said repeatedly that Tesla’s robotaxis would serve half the U.S. population by the end of 2025.

Musk offered more metered comments earlier this year on Tesla’s first-quarter call. But the company may get a big lift from the Trump administration, as last month the Department of Transportation proposed a rule change that would no longer require brake pedals be built into cars that are designed to be autonomous. If adopted, that could clear the way for Tesla to try and deploy the dozens of two-seater Cybercabs that it has been staging in cities across the country.

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