Elon Musk Says Tesla Robotaxis Without Safety Monitors Are Now Testing On The Streets Of Austin

If you live in Austin, Texas, I suggest you brace for impact. If a recent post from Tesla CEO Elon Musk is to be believed, the automaker is now testing its robotaxis on city streets without human supervision. The fully driverless vehicles deliver on an earlier promise Musk had 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 14, and from what we can tell, no one is inside of it — including the safety monitor. It was then reposted by Musk megafan DogeDesigner, and Musk responded to that post, simply saying "Testing is underway with no occupants in the car."

Testing is underway with no occupants in the car

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2025

Tesla itself also responded to another repost of the video with the caption, "Just saying." Its AI chief quoted the same post, saying, "And so it begins!" The automaker also made two separate tweets, which I'll assume are in reference to the video. The first was, "The fleet will wake up via over-the-air software update," and then it posted (more cryptically), "Slowly, then all at once." This, of course, is either a misquote of the famous Earnest Hemingway line, "Gradually, then suddenly," or whoever runs Tesla's X, the everything app, account is a huge John Green fan.

Apparently, the testing is rather limited. Folks apparently took to their Tesla apps to order robotaxis from the company to see if there were safety drivers in the cars still, and what do you know? There were, according to Business Insider.

There are now 31 Tesla robotaxis in Austin, which is up from 29 in November, according to the Robotaxi Tracker, which is run by Austin-based robotaxi watcher Ethan McKenna. 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 folks have looked at your calendars lately, but there's not much year left. During a video call at xAI's "hackathon" event last week, Musk said Tesla would remove human safety monitors from its robotaxis 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 on numerous instances of these Model Ys crashing into things, messing up traffic, being probed by the feds, and parking in a fire lane. Keep in mind, the company moved the safety monitor to the driver's seat back in September.