New Model Y will be the first Tesla robotaxi as it previews its rideshare app

Tesla will start its Robotaxi rideshare service not with the Cybercab or the Model 3, its cheapest cars in terms of manufacturing costs, but with its most popular Model Y vehicle.

The only difference from the current Model Y facelifts coming out of the factory, according to Elon Musk, is that they will be running on the unsupervised version of its FSD driver-assist option on public roads.

"To be clear, the Model Y that we are talking about in being autonomous in Austin in June are the Model Ys we make currently, there's no change to it," clarified Musk.

Currently, the newly produced Model Y vehicles do use unsupervised FSD, but only to get from the factory floor to the exact parking lot space where they will be picked up by a truck to deliver to customers.

In the near future, promised Musk, the Model Y and other newer Tesla vehicles with a HW4/AI4 set of cameras and computer, will drive themselves directly to the customer's house after they are configured and assembled.

The new Model Y refresh is "currently on track to be able to do paid rides fully autonomously in Austin in June and then in many other cities in the US by the end of this year," reiterated Musk.

The Model Y facelift is Tesla's newest car, and it makes sense that it will be best equipped to be the first vehicle on its robotaxi platform, whose ride-hailing app the Tesla AI team just previewed in the video below.

The team is using the 2026 Model Y with staff drivers to polish the app and test the new rideshare options while shuttling their colleagues back and forth in Austin and San Francisco, with more than 15,000 miles logged on the robotaxi platform already.

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