Tesla Has Not Yet Received Approval for Robo-Taxi Operations

Reuters reported on the 25th (local time) that electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has not yet received approval for autonomous robo (driverless) taxi operations in California.

According to the report, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the local regulatory authority, stated via email that the transportation license issued to Tesla does not permit the company to operate autonomous vehicles.

The CPUC confirmed, "Tesla is not allowed to transport or test people using autonomous vehicles, whether for a fee or free of charge."

Earlier that day, U.S. business media outlet Business Insider reported that Tesla was planning to launch an autonomous robo-taxi service with a driver on board as early as this weekend in San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area.

In response to Reuters' request for clarification, the CPUC explained that this is a matter for which approval has not yet been granted.

Meanwhile, on the same day, Reuters and U.S. media outlet InsideEVs reported that Tesla outperformed all local competitors in an advanced driver assistance technology performance evaluation in China.

According to the report, Tesla received the highest score among all 36 models in a recent highway driving test jointly conducted by state-run China Central Television (CCTV) and Dcar, an automotive media outlet operated by ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.

This test targeted more than 20 automotive brands sold in China and was designed to assess how each company's Level 2 advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) functions in various dangerous situations encountered during highway driving.

Six scenarios were tested, including sudden cut-ins by other vehicles, dark construction zones with stopped trucks, and emergency braking situations.

As a result, Tesla's Model 3 and Model X passed five out of the six experiments. BYD's Denza Z9GT, the Aito M9 equipped with Huawei software and supported by Huawei, and XPeng's G6 each passed three scenarios. Xiaomi's SU7 received a passing score in only one scenario.

Elon Musk shared another user's post about the test results on social media, stating, "Due to China's data export ban law, Tesla has no locally trained data, yet still achieved the best performance in China."

However, InsideEVs pointed out that this test did not include adverse weather conditions, in which Tesla's camera-only software 'FSD' is considered weaker than competitors' LiDAR-based (object recognition sensor) systems.

On the New York Stock Exchange that day, Tesla's share price rose 6% during the session to reach $323.63, before paring gains and closing at $316.06, up 3.52% from the previous day.