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Tesla on Wednesday said that an early version of its Full Self-Driving, FSD, ride-hailing service is now operational for employees in Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area.
This marks the first tangible step towards its plan to launch fully autonomous paid rides this summer.
Tesla shared the update in a post on X, insisting that the service has already completed more than 1,500 trips and over 15,000 miles of driving.
“This service helps us develop & validate FSD networks, the mobile app, vehicle allocation, mission control & remote assistance operations,” Tesla said.
This comes less than 24 hours after Tesla’s first-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, during which CEO Elon Musk reiterated plans to officially roll out the autonomous ride service in June, starting in Austin with “maybe 10 or 20″ Model Ys “on day one.”
Also, Musk had announced his decision to start pulling back from his role at the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, starting in May in a bid to focus more on Tesla.
The World Health Organisation chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has admitted they could be forced to lay off staff and scale down operations due to US funding cuts.
Ghebreyesus made this known while addressing member states, according to a transcript of his opening remarks on Tuesday.
“The sudden drop in income has left us with a large salary gap and no choice but to reduce the scale of our work and workforce,” he said.
The United Nations health agency has been bracing for the planned full withdrawal of the United States, traditionally its largest donor, come January 2026.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has meanwhile also refused to pay agreed membership fees—known as assessed contributions—for 2024 and 2025.
It has already frozen virtually all US foreign aid, including substantial assistance to global health projects.
