Tesla says your car could join its robotaxi fleet by mid-2027

Tesla has put a date on one of its biggest promises. On its third-quarter earnings call, a Tesla executive said owners could start adding their own cars to the company's robotaxi fleet around the second quarter of 2027. Elon Musk made a similar promise in 2019, so the date comes with a long track record of delays.

What Tesla said

Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's VP for Autonomous Driving, said the software in the driverless Cybercab and in the Model Y is the same. Tesla plans to release it to customers in its V15 update. The one extra step, he said, is making sure a customer's Model Y can work inside Tesla's approved driving areas and its fleet management system. He said Tesla suspects around Q2 next year it can turn on the first customer vehicles.

The history behind it

In 2019, Musk said customer cars could join a "Tesla Network" and earn their owners passive income by picking up riders on their own. He compared it to Uber or Airbnb. He also said a million Tesla robotaxis would be on the road by 2020. Neither has happened.

Today Tesla has a few hundred robotaxis in Texas and Florida, and some still have human safety monitors. It also has several dozen fully driverless Cybercabs in Austin.

The hurdles

• Driverless ride-hailing needs specific local and state permits.
• Insurance may be hard to get.
• In most places, it is still illegal for individuals or outside companies to run their own self-driving cars as driverless taxis.
• Older Model 3 and Model Y cars may lack the hardware needed.

Other numbers from the call

More buyers are choosing Full Self-Driving (Supervised), which still needs a person watching the road. Over 75 percent of new Tesla buyers in North America picked it this quarter, up almost 20 percentage points from last quarter. Tesla also says its robotaxis have driven 3.3 million miles autonomously, up from 380,000 unsupervised miles reported in July. Vehicle sales fell, revenue was flat and profits dipped.

What it means for owners

The promise is not a reason to buy a Tesla expecting it to earn money soon. Software is only part of the picture. Laws, insurance and car hardware are all unsettled, and Tesla has missed this kind of deadline before.