Tesla previews ride-hailing experience ahead of August robotaxi unveil

Tesla has shown off a preview of an upcoming ride-hailing feature in its app ahead of an August robotaxi unveiling. The company released mock-ups of the upcoming feature, which showed the ability to “summon” a ride from the Tesla app.

The company didn’t offer many details about how it would work, but images show Uber-like functionality, with the ability to remotely set the car’s temperature ahead of its arrival. Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced earlier this month that the company would unveil its long-promised robotaxis August 8.

Tesla has been promising a self-driving ride hailing service for years, with Musk promising the company’s robotaxi would start picking up riders back in 2019. For now, it’s unclear exactly when such a service might launch. “We are currently working on ride-hailing functionality that will be available in the future,” the company wrote in its latest earnings report. “We believe the Tesla software experience is best-in-class across all our products, and plan to seamlessly layer ride-hailing into the Tesla App.”

The update was shared in Tesla’s first-quarter earnings report for 2024. The automaker reported a revenue decline of 9 percent from last year, its steepest loss in more than a decade.

During a call with investors, Musk suggested the ride hailing service, which he referred to as "Cyber Cab," would function like “some combination of Airbnb and Uber,” so Tesla owners could choose to make their vehicles part of the service. “There'll be some number of cars that Tesla owns itself and operates in the fleet,” Musk said. “There'll be a bunch of cars where they're owned by the end user, but that end user can add or subtract their car to the fleet whenever they want. And they can decide if they want to only let the car be used by friends and family, or only by five star users, or by anyone.”