Overview

• Internal emails show California and U.S. safety officials were surprised by talk of a Bay Area rollout, with a NHTSA investigator asking if Tesla had discussed a weekend launch and state staff confirming the company lacked required permits.
• State officials said Tesla’s Bay Area plan involved invitation-only, pre-arranged rides in non-autonomous vehicles under a limousine-type authorization that does not allow on-demand service.
• The California Public Utilities Commission told Tesla to describe its offering accurately after company posts used the term “robotaxi” alongside its supervised Full Self-Driving subscription.
• Tesla’s deployments remain limited to small, supervised pilots, including an invitation-only Austin test with safety monitors and no California approval for driverless ride-hailing.
• Nevada granted Tesla a testing certificate and Arizona acknowledged testing with a safety driver, while approvals to operate without drivers there are still pending.