Hits a speed bump

Elon Musk's Tesla hits a speed bump in its California ‘Robotaxi’ rollout: Permits

As the tech CEO promises a Robotaxi launch in California, Tesla employees have been presenting a far more limited plan to key state regulators.

By Christine Mui

Tesla has been discussing a California expansion of its “ridesharing” service with state regulators — though in a far more limited way than Elon Musk is promising for his driverless Robotaxis, documents obtained by POLITICO reveal.

Tesla representatives made time for at least five meetings with the state Department of Motor Vehicles and its autonomous vehicle chief, Miguel Acosta, since the start of 2024, according to calendar invites, emails and other files from a public records request.

POLITICO first reported the communications less than a day before Tesla and Musk announced the launch of a ride-hailing service in the San Francisco Bay Area that lets invited users call a Tesla. Neither the company nor the CEO used the term “Robotaxi.”

The DMV’s exchanges with Tesla lawyers and other personnel paint the most detailed picture yet of what the notoriously media-wary company has been presenting to a key authority, while Musk broadcasts ambitions for a Robotaxi service in his former state. Still, it’s only a partial view of how Tesla has been interacting with state officials after Musk moved its headquarters to Texas following years of confrontations with California regulators and personal complaints about its liberal policies.

Records also indicate no correspondence between Tesla and the DMV’s autonomous vehicle branch from the start of 2025 to the spring, when Musk pivoted his focus to the Trump White House.

Musk is trying to transform Tesla and sees a nationwide fleet of fully autonomous taxis and humanoid robots as the only ideas that will matter to his long-term business strategy. He took the first step in Austin, Texas last month, piloting $4.20 rides with a human in the front passenger seat under the “Robotaxi” brand.

But Tesla faces more hurdles to doing the same in California, where it lacks permits that would allow it to run any autonomous service, even with a safety driver, and to charge for it. Without those approvals, there can be no Robotaxi.

Tesla scheduled two meetings with the California DMV this month, with the latest for last Thursday. Hours later, the DMV and another oversight body publicly warned the company against an unauthorized Robotaxi rollout in the San Francisco Bay Area, amid media reports of such plans.

In both cases, Musk made a habit of dropping launch date targets just ahead of the calls. Two days before his team’s first July meeting, the CEO posted on X that he was waiting on California regulators, despite not having submitted any recent applications. He gave a new timeline and location: “a month or two” to bring Robotaxis to the Bay Area. Then, a day before the second DMV meeting this month, Musk spoke on an earnings call about his goal of getting permission for Robotaxi launches in the Bay Area, among other cities, by the end of the year.

The term “Robotaxi” was never used in obtained emails, letters and meeting invites exchanged between the company and the DMV’s autonomous vehicle branch over the past year.

Tesla and the employees mentioned in this story did not respond to requests for comment.

Clearing the air

The documents show moments where Tesla was on the back foot as it made appeals to the DMV.

On April 10, Casey Blaine, Tesla’s senior counsel of regulatory affairs, got in touch with the department to dispel a suggestion — made on social media by an unnamed employee — that it would introduce unsupervised, full self-driving in Los Angeles later this year — software for its cars to move autonomously without the need for human monitoring or intervention.

Tesla knew the issue was statewide. The company has a permit that only allows it to operate a transportation service with conventional cars from the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates AVs along with the DMV.

“Please know that Tesla is aware of the various permitting requirements,” Blaine emailed Acosta. “We understand that drivered and driverless autonomous rideshare operations would require obtaining additional permits from both the DMV and the CPUC.”

Blaine further apologized for “any confusion” created by the LinkedIn post from the employee, who she said likely “misunderstood the scope” of the permit.

She described an operation more like Uber than the concept Musk has in mind for Tesla’s future, which would go beyond the capabilities of the dominant robotaxi service throughout California and the U.S.: the Google-backed Waymo. It would use supervised, full self-driving software that is “functionally the same” as the partial automation available in Tesla cars, she told Acosta.

Some pro-Tesla influencers and owners posted screenshots Wednesday night showing the ride-hailing service had gone live on their Robotaxi app. Musk shared a video on X of one influencer trying a Bay Area ride. A human sat in the driver’s seat and was seen touching the wheel during the experience.

“As we explained to the CPUC, we are taking a phased approach,” Blaine had written to Acosta in April. “Beginning first with Tesla employees, then expanding to friends & family of Tesla employees, and then finally, opening it to the general public.”

Acosta revisited that topic in mid-June, when Tesla reached out, offering him a call to discuss comments it submitted on the DMV’s proposed autonomous vehicle regulations.

He declined. Instead, he wanted an update on Tesla’s testing operation, noting it had “been a while” since his last meeting with the team.

Blaine set up an hour-long meeting on July 11. Other regulatory counsel for Tesla — Eric Williams, Jessica Zacharski and Victoria Giese — as well as several of its technical staff, including lead Cybercab engineer Eric Earley and Autopilot whiz Pete Scheutzow, accepted the invite — as did Acosta.

A second meeting was arranged for last Thursday, according to a Microsoft Teams invitation from Blaine to the same Tesla attendees, plus a larger showing from the DMV. Besides Acosta, six other DMV employees agreed to attend.

“The department regularly engages with the autonomous vehicle industry before, during and after testing,” DMV spokesperson Jonathan Groveman told POLITICO earlier this month, noting the agency recently met with Tesla to discuss its plans to test AVs in the state.

That same Thursday, Tesla notified the CPUC it intended to grow its existing transportation service and offer rides to employees’ friends and family, as well as some members of the public across the entire Bay Area.

It didn’t take long for the DMV and CPUC to sound alarms. On Friday, Business Insider reported Tesla was preparing to move up its timeline for the Bay Area and invite select Tesla owners to pay for Robotaxi rides as early as that weekend. Inviting the public to take part in an autonomous launch would be a clear deviation from the plan Blaine previously explained to regulators.

CPUC spokesperson Terrie Prosper and Groveman each drew red lines on Friday, while confirming Tesla had not pursued any additional permits.

Prosper warned that Tesla can’t use an AV to transport the public in any scenario, no matter if a safety driver is present or whether passengers pay. Groveman said Tesla’s DMV permit allows it to operate AVs with a safety driver, but the company wouldn’t be able to charge for rides.

The report also prompted Emily Warren, a deputy secretary at the California State Transportation Agency, to contact Tesla’s policy lead for the Western U.S., Noelani Derrickson. Derrickson clarified Tesla’s Bay Area expansion would be for its conventional transportation service and said it had informed the CPUC, according to a CalSTA spokesperson.

State lawmakers who represent San Francisco raised concerns, too. Assemblymember Catherine Stefani wrote the DMV, asking whether it would enforce against an illegal launch, and said she hasn’t received any clear answers.

“If any other company tried to skirt the rules like this, they’d be shut down immediately,” she told POLITICO. “All I know is what [Elon’s] saying. I’m trying to get information from the DMV and the CPUC.”

Down this road before

The DMV has stepped in to check Tesla’s ambitions in the past. The agency accused Tesla of misleading customers about its full self-driving technology in an ongoing lawsuit and is pushing to suspend the automaker’s ability to sell in the state.

At times, regulators have questioned Tesla’s activities and whether they overstep the scope of its existing permits

Before this month, Tesla’s meetings with the DMV were related to its decade-old safety driver permit. One meeting on the books for early June was about “the process for transferring” Tesla’s California safety driver permit. Two in December — the last recorded meetings before this summer — had to do with an application Tesla submitted that month to renew that DMV permit.

Blaine was listed as the organizer of those calls, and participants included Acosta, often other DMV staff and a few of the same Tesla representatives, according to calendar records.

In November, Acosta contacted Tesla about a program of specialized test drivers, known internally as “Project Rodeo,” after Business Insider reported they were encouraged to dangerously stretch the limits of the company’s full self-driving technology by waiting as long as possible before taking control of the wheel.

“It is important to note that autonomous vehicles may only be tested, deployed or otherwise operated on public roads in California if the appropriate permit has been issued by the department,” he reminded Williams, counsel of regulatory affairs for Tesla, in a letter.

Tesla gave a different characterization of its effort during a call Acosta had with Williams and again in a letter from Eddie Gates, its director of field quality. Gates tried to convince Acosta that the program and the level of automation associated with it did not “implicate” the testing guidelines for its permit, according to a copy.

“Tesla routinely reminds Rodeo drivers that their top priority and that of the program is to ensure motor vehicle safety,” he wrote Acosta. “Rodeo drivers are trained to always and immediately intervene whenever they believe their vehicles may be about to perform a behavior that may create an unsafe situation for themselves and/or other road users.”