Tesla Robotaxis Ditching the Driver in Austin Soon, Plus a Monster FSD AI Update on the Horizon!

TL;DR: Elon Musk says Tesla Robotaxis in Austin are ditching human safety monitors in about three weeks! Plus, a monster new FSD AI model, 'an order of magnitude larger' with more reasoning, is set to drop in January or February 2026. Get ready for some serious self-driving moves!

Meta: Elon Musk confirmed Tesla's Robotaxis in Austin will go fully unsupervised in about three weeks, and teased a new, larger FSD AI model with enhanced reasoning arriving in early 2026.

Alright, alright, gather 'round, 'cause Elon Musk just pulled back the curtain on some serious self-driving action! With only a few weeks left in 2025, the man himself confirmed what many have been waiting for: Tesla's Robotaxis in Austin are about to go full unsupervised. And when I say unsupervised, I mean nobody in the car. Not in the driver's seat, not in the passenger's seat. Just the car, doing its thing. Musk said at the xAI Hackathon that this is happening "in about three weeks." That's cutting it close, but hey, a promise is a promise, and this one's got a countdown timer ticking faster than a hot potato!

The Robotaxi Takes Flight, Sans Chaperone

Musk's been talking about this for a minute now, but this is the strongest confirmation yet. "[FSD] Unsupervised is pretty much solved at this point," he declared. Currently, those Austin Robotaxis have a trained Safety Monitor riding shotgun (or behind the wheel on highways), but soon, it's just gonna be the car and the open road. This is a monumental step, folks. It's like watching your kid finally get their driver's license, except the kid is a highly advanced AI and you're trusting it with, well, everything!

This isn't just about showing off; it's about validating that Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software is truly ready to handle the complexities of city streets without human intervention. Imagine a fleet of Teslas zipping around, picking up passengers, all on their own. It's the kind of futuristic stuff that used to be only in movies, and now it's about to be real on the streets of Austin.

A Bigger Brain for FSD: The 'Last Big Piece of the Puzzle'

But wait, there's more! Musk also teased a mind-blowing update for the FSD software itself. He said a new FSD model is coming in about a month or two – January or February 2026, to be precise – that will be "an order of magnitude larger" and include "a lot of reasoning and RL (reinforcement learning)." He even hinted that Tesla might need to build a "giant chip fab" to handle the sheer volume of AI chips needed for this kind of scale. This ain't no incremental update; this sounds like a whole new level of intelligence for your ride.

Back in November, Musk called an upcoming FSD version "the last big piece of the puzzle." Now, with this talk of a massive new model, it seems like that puzzle is really coming together. If they pull this off, we're talking about a leap in autonomous driving capabilities that could change the game. It's like upgrading from a flip phone to a smartphone, but for your car's brain. The implications for safety, efficiency, and the sheer coolness factor are off the charts.

What’s Next

All eyes are on Austin for the Robotaxi rollout in the coming weeks. We'll be watching for reports, videos, and, hopefully, a smooth, incident-free launch. Then, the focus shifts to early 2026 for the release of that colossal new FSD AI model. If these timelines hold, Tesla could be ushering in a new era of truly autonomous transportation. The future's coming, whether you're ready for it or not!

Alright, gotta go. My ride's waiting... or maybe it's driving itself. Peace out!