Tesla CEO Elon Musk said today that the company plans to completely eliminate Safety Drivers from its Robotaxi fleet, which differs from the Safety Monitors it uses.

Tesla’s Robotaxi platform utilizes employees in the front passenger seat during city rides in Austin and the driver’s seat of the vehicles during highway operations in Austin, as well as during all rides in the Bay Area.

Tesla adjusts Robotaxi safety monitor strategy in Austin with new service area

Musk said the presence of a Safety Driver “is just there for the first few months to be extra safe,” but there are plans to remove them in an effort to remove the crutches the company uses during the early stages of Robotaxi.

The CEO then outlined a timeframe for when it would remove the presence of an employee in the driver’s seat in both Austin and the Bay Area. He said there “should be no safety driver by end of year.”

The safety driver is just there for the first few months to be extra safe.

Should be no safety driver by end of year.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2025

Having a Safety Driver or Monitor has been a major point of criticism from Robotaxi skeptics and Tesla critics.

However, Tesla has maintained that its priority in the early stages is the safety of riders, which will keep things running; even a single negative incident could derail self-driving efforts as a whole, including those outside of the company.

Tesla executives have said their attitude toward safety is “paranoid,” but for good reason: an accident could set back the progress that it and many other companies, including rivals like Waymo, have made in the past few years.

For now, it might be a point of criticism for some, but it’s smart in the near term. Musk plans for Tesla to have Robotaxi operating for half of the U.S. population by the end of the year as well, so it will be interesting to see if it can maintain these timelines.

Tesla is already giving Robotaxi privileges to those who downloaded the app and joined its waitlist just hours after it launched in the United States.

As the Robotaxi platform has been operating in Austin for several months, Tesla is now allowing the general public to download its app and call for a driverless ride in the city.

Tesla Robotaxi makes major expansion with official public app launch

The company previously sent invitations to select media outlets and Tesla influencers, seeking initial feedback on the performance of the Robotaxi platform.

There have been positive reviews, but, as with any Beta program, some mishaps have also occurred, although none have been significant.

As of the writing of this article, the City of Austin only lists one incident involving a Tesla Robotaxi, noting it as a “Safety Concern,” but not an accident or collision.

This morning, Tesla launched the app in the Apple Store, giving iOS users the ability to download and join a waitlist in hopes of gaining access.

Tesla is already granting Robotaxi access to several of those who have downloaded the app and gotten on the waitlist early:

Been getting a lot of messages from people who downloaded Tesla’s new Robtoaxi app last night and already have access to the company’s robotaxi and ride-hailing services. pic.twitter.com/xgbki1D3Lw

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) September 4, 2025

With the launch of the public app, we were not too sure how soon Tesla would be able to initiate bringing more riders into the Robotaxi program. The immediate admittance for some riders just hours after the launch is a big positive and is surely a sign of strength for Tesla and its Robotaxi program.

What many will look for moving forward is the expansion of the geofence, which does not seem like a problem, as Tesla has already managed to do this on three occasions. The most recent expansion has expanded the service area to approximately 190 square miles.

People will also look for evidence of fleet expansion, a concern that has been a concern for many, especially since Tesla has not been completely transparent about it. They have revealed a recent service fleet growth of 50 percent, but there has been no specific number of vehicles mentioned.

Tesla reveals it has expanded its Robotaxi fleet in Austin

Tesla has provided an explanation about the presence of safety monitors in the driver’s seat of its autonomous Robotaxi units.

The autonomous ride-hailing service is currently being deployed in Austin and the Bay Area, with more cities across the United States expected to gain access to the service later this year.

Safety Monitors

When Tesla launched its initial Robotaxi program in Austin, the company made headlines for operating vehicles without a human in the driver’s seat. Even with this setup, however, Tesla still had safety monitors in the passenger seat of the Robotaxis. The safety monitors, which do not interact with passengers, have been observed to report issues and other behaviors from the autonomous vehicles in real time. 

Safety monitors on the driver’s seat were also employed in the service’s Bay Area rollout, though numerous members of the EV community speculated that this was likely done to meet regulations in California. However, with the expansion of the Austin geofence, riders in Tesla’s Robotaxis observed that the safety monitors in the city have been moved to the driver’s seat as well.

Tesla’s explanation

The update to Austin’s safety monitors became a point of interest among Tesla watchers on social media. Longtime FSD tester Whole Mars Catalog, for one, speculated that the move might be due to Texas’ new regulations for autonomous vehicles, which took effect recently. Interestingly enough, the official Tesla Robotaxi account on X responded to the FSD tester, providing an explanation behind the safety monitor’s move to the driver’s seat. 

“Safety monitors are only in the driver’s seat for trips that involve highway driving, as a self-imposed cautious first step toward expanding to highways,” the Tesla Robotaxi account noted.

Tesla has been extremely cautious with its autonomous driving program, particularly with the rollout of its Robotaxi service, which use Unsupervised FSD. This is quite understandable considering the negative media slant that Tesla is consistently subjected to, which could very well result in minute incidents or mistakes by Robotaxis being blown out of proportion.