Tesla is about to change the side hustle game for car owners—by letting them turn their vehicles into money-making “robotaxis.” The idea? Tesla owners could soon earn extra income just like Uber drivers, using their own cars to pick up and drop off passengers.
But before you imagine your Tesla cruising the city on autopilot while you relax at home, there’s a big catch: you’ll still need to be behind the wheel.
The rollout of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta back in 2020 was the first step toward this vision. Since then, Elon Musk’s team has been steadily building up its autonomous tech, with plenty of hype and headlines along the way.
The new robotaxi feature is already being tested with Tesla employees in Austin, Texas, and the San Francisco Bay Area, where the company says they’ve completed over 1,500 trips and logged more than 15,000 miles.
The system, called FSD Supervised, is designed to help Tesla refine not just the self-driving software, but also everything from their mobile app and ride allocation to mission control and remote assistance.
In theory, it puts the potential for earning extra cash within reach for any Tesla owner—no Uber or Grab required.
Here’s where the “but” comes in: despite the robotaxi branding, you can’t just send your Tesla out to work on its own.
The program requires a human driver in the car at all times, ready to take control if anything goes wrong. In other words, it’s not a passive income stream—at least, not yet.
That detail didn’t go unnoticed on social media. After the news broke on Elon Musk’s platform X (formerly Twitter), the comments section quickly filled up.
One user wondered when the feature would roll out to everyone, while another joked about the insurance headaches, and a third pointed out, “There’s absolutely nothing wrong that could happen with that”—dripping with sarcasm about the risks.
Tesla’s self-driving technology has made major strides, but it’s also faced its share of hiccups. Streamers have gone viral showing near-misses and odd FSD behavior, fueling debates about how close we are to truly autonomous vehicles.
For now, Tesla owners can look forward to the chance to earn money by driving passengers, much like Uber drivers do today—but fully driverless income is still just out of reach.
The timeline for a wider launch hasn’t been confirmed, but with thousands of supervised trips already complete, it’s clear Tesla is determined to make the robotaxi dream a reality—one cautious step at a time.
