Tesla’s Robotaxi program in Austin just crossed another major threshold — and this time, the public is officially along for the ride.
Over the weekend, Tesla began offering fully autonomous Robotaxi rides to members of the public using Full Self-Driving “Unsupervised,” with no one in the front seats — not even a safety monitor. One of the first riders to document the experience was Tesla enthusiast Phil Duan (@philduan), who shared footage of his ride through Austin streets with no human supervision in the vehicle at all. His post summed it up simply: “Along for the ride in unsupervised FSD testing.”
That may sound casual, but it marks a major leap for Tesla’s autonomy ambitions.
Just last week, Tesla began testing completely unmanned Robotaxi runs in Austin, initially without drivers, safety monitors, or passengers. Those early tests appeared to be limited in scope, but the presence of real riders now suggests the program is quickly expanding beyond internal validation and into early public deployment.
Another rider even joked about the experience, quipping that a “Safety Meownitor” was along for the ride — referring to a cat that joined one autonomous trip. Lighthearted moments aside, the milestone is anything but trivial. These rides represent Tesla’s first real-world tests of unsupervised autonomy with passengers, operating on public roads.
The timing lines up almost perfectly with Elon Musk’s recent comments. Just a couple of weeks ago, Musk said Tesla had “pretty much solved” unsupervised Full Self-Driving and that Robotaxis without safety monitors or anyone in the front seats would begin rolling out in Austin within roughly three weeks. That timeline now appears to be materializing in real time. During Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting last month, Musk also said the company was only “a few months away” from unsupervised FSD for the public.
This shift has been months in the making. Back in September, Musk promised that Tesla’s Austin Robotaxi pilot — initially launched with safety monitors in the passenger seat — would transition to rides with no one in the vehicle except riders before the end of the year. With public rides now underway, that pledge looks increasingly realistic.
Tesla’s aggressive pace of iteration on Full Self-Driving is clearly accelerating this rollout. The Robotaxi fleet is believed to be running FSD builds ahead of what customers currently have access to, though history suggests those improvements eventually trickle down. The latest public release, FSD version 14.2.1, already allows drivers to text behind the wheel when road and traffic conditions permit — a telling signal of how close Tesla believes it is to removing human supervision entirely. Musk has also teased FSD 14.3, due in the coming weeks, as the “last big piece” needed for true autonomous driving.
For now, Austin remains Tesla’s proving ground. But with unsupervised Robotaxi rides now open to the public, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Tesla’s long-promised autonomous future is no longer theoretical — it’s actively unfolding on city streets.
