Tesla Posts Sixth Year of Zero CA Test Miles

Tesla has recorded zero autonomous driving test miles on public roads in California for the sixth consecutive year, despite repeated statements by CEO Elon Musk that the company is months away from launching a driverless robotaxi service in the state. Newly disclosed records from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) show that the company made no progress in 2025 toward securing the permits required to deploy such a service.

The absence of testing activity underscores a gap between Tesla’s public timeline and the regulatory framework governing autonomous vehicles in California, the largest automotive market in the United States. Under the state’s rules, companies must complete extensive on-road testing and obtain multiple permits before operating a fully driverless ride-hailing service.

“Tesla is implying that they are ready and regulators are not. The reality is that regulators are ready, and they are not,” said Bryant Walker, a law professor at the University of South Carolina and an autonomous driving expert who has advised the California DMV.

Tesla did not respond to requests for comment regarding its permitting status or testing activity.

The company’s robotaxi strategy is central to its long-term valuation. A significant portion of Tesla’s approximately US$1.5 trillion market capitalization is tied to investor expectations that it will deploy a large-scale autonomous ride-hailing fleet and generate recurring revenue from self-driving software subscriptions. Access to California’s market is widely seen as critical to achieving those ambitions.

However, regulatory filings show Tesla has not logged any autonomous test miles with California authorities since 2019 and has reported only 562 miles in total since 2016. The DMV confirmed that Tesla has not applied for permits beyond the most basic authorization, which allows testing of autonomous vehicles only with a human safety driver behind the wheel.

To advance within California’s regulatory system, Tesla would need to demonstrate substantial testing progress. Proposed DMV rules — expected to be finalized later this year — would require companies to log at least 50,000 miles (80,467 km) of autonomous driving on public roads with a safety driver before applying for a permit to test without one.

In contrast, Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, has logged more than 13 million autonomous test miles and secured seven regulatory approvals between 2014 and 2023. Waymo is currently one of only three companies authorized to commercially operate driverless vehicles in California and the only one running a robotaxi fleet comparable in scope to Tesla’s stated ambitions.

California’s regulatory structure requires coordination between multiple agencies. In addition to DMV testing permits, companies must obtain authorization from the California Public Utilities Commission to operate commercial ride-hailing services using autonomous vehicles. Tesla has yet to secure approvals from either body for fully driverless operations.

Musk has frequently cited regulatory complexity as a key constraint. During an October 2024 earnings call, he described California as having “quite a long regulatory approval process. I would be shocked if we do not get approved next year, but it is just not something we totally control,” he said.

At the same time, Musk has emphasized Tesla’s internal safety standards. “We are paranoid about safety. We probably could just let it loose in these cities, but we just don’t want to take a chance,” he told analysts.

Tesla’s current operations reflect that cautious positioning but also highlight limitations in its autonomous deployment. The company operates a limited pilot robotaxi service in Austin, where regulatory barriers are lower than in California. In the San Francisco Bay Area, Tesla launched what it described as a “robotaxi” service in July, but the offering relies on human drivers using the company’s “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) driver-assistance system.

According to state regulators and Tesla’s own disclosures, FSD does not constitute fully autonomous driving. As a result, the California service is classified as a chauffeur operation rather than a driverless robotaxi platform.

The distinction is significant under California’s regulatory framework, which requires a clear separation between advanced driver-assistance systems and fully autonomous vehicles. Companies seeking to remove human drivers must demonstrate system reliability through extensive testing, data reporting and regulatory review.

Tesla has previously pushed back against some of these requirements. In written comments submitted last year, the company questioned the necessity of minimum mileage thresholds and mandatory on-road testing. It also criticized what it described as “overly burdensome reporting requirements” related to crashes and system performance.