Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly promised to launch a Robotaxi service in California, but the latest regulatory records indicate that the company has made no substantial progress in advancing approval compliance.
According to Reuters, unpublished records from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and a spokesperson from the agency confirmed that Tesla took no action in 2025 to obtain the relevant operating permits. Data shows that the company's autonomous driving road test mileage on California roads has been zero for the sixth consecutive year.
This stagnation directly impacts the core narrative supporting Tesla's $1.5 trillion market value. Investors have long bet that Tesla would successfully operate a large fleet of autonomous vehicles and achieve scaled monetization of software subscriptions, with California being a key pillar for realizing this strategic ambition as the largest automotive market in the U.S.
Although Musk has repeatedly attributed service delays to lengthy approval processes, Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor and autonomous driving expert at the University of South Carolina, pointed out that Tesla is trying to convey the message that &#34;the company is ready while regulation lags,&#34; but the reality is quite the opposite.
<h2>Road Test Data Faces Compliance Barriers</h2>
Under California's current regulatory framework, recording test mileage is a core prerequisite for autonomous driving companies to obtain commercial operating licenses. According to Reuters, to deploy a fully autonomous ride-hailing service similar to Alphabet's Waymo in California, companies must sequentially pass a series of approvals from the DMV and the California Public Utilities Commission, which oversees commercial ride-hailing.
Currently, Tesla only holds a basic permit from the DMV, which requires a safety driver to be in the driver's seat during testing. A DMV spokesperson stated that Tesla has not applied for any additional permits. According to a new DMV regulation draft expected to be finalized later this year, companies must complete at least 50,000 miles (approximately 80,467 kilometers) of autonomous driving testing on California public roads under the supervision of a safety driver before applying for a permit for testing without a safety driver.
However, Tesla has not recorded any mileage to state regulators since 2019, with a total mileage of only 562 miles since 2016. In comparison, Waymo accumulated over 13 million miles of test mileage between 2014 and 2023 and received seven different regulatory approvals, ultimately being allowed to charge passengers. Waymo is currently one of three companies with a commercial autonomous driving operating license in California and the only one authorized to operate a fleet that aligns with Musk's vision.
<h2>Regulatory Barriers and Business Status</h2>
Tesla is currently employing a strategy to circumvent high regulatory barriers in its actual operations. The company is only operating a small Robotaxi pilot project in Austin, Texas, where regulatory requirements are much more relaxed.
In the San Francisco Bay Area of California, Tesla launched a so-called &#34;Robotaxi&#34; service last July. However, according to disclosures from California regulators and Tesla to customers, this is not a true autonomous taxi service but rather a ride-hailing service provided by human drivers using Tesla's &#34;Full Self-Driving&#34; (FSD) assist software, which does not possess full autonomous driving capabilities
In response to the slow compliance process, Musk explained to analysts during last October's earnings call that the company is extremely paranoid about safety and takes a &#34;cautious approach&#34; to entering new markets. He also hinted that California's regulations are a major obstacle, stating that the approval process in the state is extremely lengthy.
Tesla also criticized the proposed revisions to California DMV's autonomous driving rules in its written comments last year, questioning the necessity of the in-state testing requirements and minimum mileage thresholds, and complaining that the reporting requirements for collisions and system failures are &#34;too cumbersome.&#34; Tesla did not respond to requests for comments regarding the aforementioned regulatory records and progress issues

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Tesla has made no substantial progress in advancing its Robotaxi service in California: the mileage for road testing has been zero for six consecutive years (only 562 miles), far from the 50,000-mile threshold required to obtain an operating license. Musk blames the approval process, but experts point out that the reality is quite the opposite: the company has not even completed the most basic testing requirements, and the so-called "Robotaxi" in the Bay Area is actually a human-assisted driving service

- Tesla's CEO Elon Musk has pledged to launch a Robotaxi service in California, but recent regulatory records indicate no substantial progress in obtaining approvals.  
- The California DMV confirmed that Tesla has not taken any actions to secure operational permits in 2025, with zero autonomous driving test miles recorded over six years.  
- This stagnation undermines Tesla's narrative, impacting investor confidence as California is crucial for the company's ambitions to operate a large fleet and monetize software subscriptions.

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Tesla's California autonomous driving "pie in the sky"? Regulatory records show: road test mileage has been zero for six consecutive years