Tesla is trying to deceive investors into thinking it has San Francisco Robotaxi (electrek.co)

Tesla’s Q3 shareholder letter claims it “launched ride‑hailing service in the Bay Area using Robotaxi technology,” but that phrasing appears misleading: California has not issued Tesla a permit to operate driverless taxis, and Tesla’s Bay Area offering is effectively a limited ride‑hail service for Early Access customers using Teslas with Level‑2 driver assist. CFO Vaibhav Taneja noted the fleet logged “more than a million miles” in the Bay Area, but those miles had a human “safety monitor” in the vehicle (with a kill switch) rather than true driverless operation. Tesla’s only public Robotaxi deployment that approaches autonomy is in Austin, Texas, launched in June, yet it also uses onboard safety monitors and has produced only limited public demonstrations (including a single autonomous delivery). The discrepancy matters because it highlights a gap between Tesla’s marketing and regulatory/technical reality: driverless taxi permits in California carry reporting obligations Tesla hasn’t pursued, and Musk’s recent rollout timelines (half the U.S. population, then 47 metros, now 8–10 metros) have repeatedly contracted. Technically, Tesla’s current systems are human‑supervised Level‑2 assistance, not SAE Level‑4 driverless service, which has implications for safety, regulatory compliance, investor transparency, and potential scrutiny over whether company statements overstate operational autonomy.