The Tesla CEO said public rides are “tentatively” planned to begin on June 22, an early birthday present for an entrepreneur that has chased the dream of full self-driving for nearly a decade. Tesla may not have the lead over Waymo in the autonomous ride-hailing market right now,

Failing to secure a trademark is far from the only challenge facing the would-be autonomous taxi service. Earlier this year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) began investigating 2.6 million Teslas after the Actually Smart Summon feature caused numerous unreported crashes.

Specifically, Musk wants to parlay Tesla's automobile business into a full-fledged robotaxi operation. The prospects of Tesla disrupting ride-hailing, delivery services, and even

The car service will be geofenced to Austin using Level 2 autonomous driving, meaning it still needs human supervision behind the wheel.

Tesla shares have surged in anticipation of the launch of the company's robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, this week. Goldman Sachs says Tesla has advantages in the AV market, but questioned its ability to meet CEO Elon Musk's targets.