Tesla applies for the second six permits needed for Ca robot

Tesla has applied to the California Public Services Commission for a permit to use a California travel service. There are six different permits included to do so. Tesla currently has one, but never used it actually.

Previously, Tesla stated that they would launch an autonomous robotax service in Austin in June, with no one in the car, unattended by a man holding public members as passengers. Texas has much less regulation than California, so this may be possible if they can really make technology work. However, Tesla has also stated that she plans to provide “this year” service in California, and perhaps the rest of the country. Critics have stressed that Tesla has not even started the process of permission that would be needed, and apparently Tesla has received attention and started this process, though most likely to operate this year.

There are six state permits, along with any federal demand such as Federal Standards of NHTSA motor vehicle safety and other such laws.

1. Autonomous Testing Permit DMV (with safety driver) – Tesla has this permit, but always reports that they have made zero test miles.
2. DMV test without safety driver. Tesla doesn’t have that.
3. DMV operating permit without safety driver. Tesla doesn’t have that. This is the main permit revoked by the DMV navigation that led to their decline.
4. CPUC travel service, which allows for man -led travel service. This is what Tesla has applied to. It allows you to be like uber.
5. Autonomous CPU vehicle Travel service permit without distance. Tesla does not have this and requires permission 1-4. No fees can be charged for travel.
6. Autonomous Autonomous CPUC Service travel, charging fees.

There is a long chain of permission with some bureaucracy to manage. Moreover, the application for these latest permits requires certification that the vehicle has fulfilled certain levels of security, and these are levels that Tesla is still far from-maybe many years of reach. Their current FSD version 13 system is reported by drivers who need a critical intervention about 400 miles. (Waymo, otherwise, had simply reported insurance auditors that it was going 2.3 million miles among responsibility incidents in guilt. This is not the same as critical interventions, but Tesla refuses to release comparable data.) Cruise also issued data that declare a good record, though not as good as Waymo.

However, the cruise had an incident in Seriius in 2023 which led DMV to revoke its permits. CPUC followed their revocation. Two reasons were quoted, namely poor security performance and hide unstable information from regulators. While most believe it was the latter that was the main reason, DMV never answered questions about it. Tesla has a distance to go to get this permit and other permits.

It is also strange that while they have had the #1 permission above for some time, they have not used it. Yeardo year, they complete the required reports and state that they did zero test miles. They do a lot of tests, but claim that this is only their car used in the supervised Adas mode. This is technically true, but when the laws were written, it became a clear distinction between Adas cars, and developing cars to be self -driving. Tesla, in the very name of their system, declares it to be a prototype self-direction system.

Rangeuddistically, Anthony Levandowski, when he was running the ATG self-driving team of Uber, tried the same approach (though he and I helped to draft laws for this.) He tried to declare Uber’s cars with a security driver were just Ada. DMV rebuked it and told Uber that they would withdraw the license plates from Uber’s trial cars if they did not change that. Uber agreed. DMV has never made the same threat to Tesla, because of unknown reasons because Uber is a motorist and Adas Carve-out was set at the request of traditional automobiles.

There are other issues in Tesla permits. For example, the important operation permit requires a statement that the vehicles in question are “unable to operate autonomously” outside their official service area (strange.) Since Tesla’s dream of a vehicle that can drive anywhere is not currently possible, they will not do so except with cars dedicated to this limit. But this is not difficult the only challenge to obtain and hold this permission.

However, the only real consequence of this news is that Tesla is no longer fully ignoring the demands of her permission.