ClaimsRodney Brooks

“I believe the actual number is still solidly zero.”

Rodney Brooks, blog author 1 January 2023 Predictions Scorecard, 2023 January 01 (rodneybrooks.com) archived copy

Factual Technology

As of January 2023 Brooks believed the number of Tesla robo-taxis on the road was still zero.

Resolved true The record shows it happened or was so.

Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?

What would count as true or false

Judged as of 1 January 2023. True if, at that date, Tesla operated no robotaxis (driverless vehicles carrying paying or public passengers with no human driver) on public roads. Mostly true if the only such operations were trivial or unclear cases, such as internal tests, that do not amount to a robotaxi service. Mostly false if Tesla was running a small but real driverless passenger service at that date. False if Tesla had robotaxis carrying passengers in meaningful numbers on public roads at that date.

Set before the research began.

Evidence (5)

  1. E1 Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) Q4 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript - January 25, 2023 roic.ai · 25 January 2023

    “Then there's an incremental, which is for the additional features of full self-driving offers and we've released a portion of that.”

  2. E2 Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) Q4 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript - January 25, 2023 roic.ai · 25 January 2023

    “So do you already see that people are getting more excited by FSD, because they see it around them on 400,000 cars and they see the value of the service already”

  3. E3 Elon Musk Has Been Promising Robotaxis To Investors Since 2016 - Jalopnik Jalopnik · 11 October 2024

    “Two years later, there were still no Tesla robotaxis on the road. Musk still expected that Tesla would soon begin production of its dedicated fleet for the service, robotaxis with no steering wheels or pedals.”

  4. E4 Tesla's Robotaxis Are Finally Testing Without A Safety Driver: Musk InsideEVs · 29 May 2025

    “Keep in mind that ahead of schedule is still behind the original promise of a million robotaxis on the road by the end of 2020, and several other related unfulfilled promises since.”

  5. E5 Tesla's ride-hailing gambit TechCrunch Mobility · 1 August 2025

    “Tesla’s first notable step toward that goal was in June when it launched a limited robotaxi service in Austin, Texas.”

Reasoning

E6 (TechCrunch, August 2025) calls Tesla's limited robotaxi service in Austin, launched in June 2025, its "first notable step" toward ride-hailing. E5 (InsideEVs, May 2025) reports that Tesla's robotaxis were only then beginning to test without a safety driver. E4 (Jalopnik) records that Musk's repeated robotaxi promises went unmet for years. Together, these independent sources are consistent with Tesla running no driverless passenger service on public roads as of 1 January 2023, with its first limited robotaxi service launched only in June 2025 [E6].

Cite this claim

Rodney Brooks, “As of January 2023 Brooks believed the number of Tesla robo-taxis on the road was still zero.” (said 1 January 2023). Verdict: resolved true. Reliability API, claim c_9a0788db1ef0, method 0.1.0+c876030c, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_9a0788db1ef0

This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.

Reply to this claim

For Rodney Brooks, or someone speaking for them: a correction or counter-evidence. Replies are read before anything is shown; an approved reply shows your name, role, date, statement and link. Your email address is never shown and is deleted 30 days after the decision (privacy).

More factual claims by Rodney Brooks

  1. Mostly true Factual 1 January 2025
    “Zoox has purpose built vehicles that have no steering wheel or pedals for brake or accelerator.”

    Zoox has purpose-built vehicles with no steering wheel or brake and accelerator pedals.

  2. Mixed Factual 29 September 2024
    “In the early days of robots for hospitals and for hospitality (i.e., hotels) and for managed care facilities for the elderly, it was first necessary to install Wi-Fi in the buildings as it was needed…”

    In the early days of robots for hospitals, hotels and managed care facilities, Wi-Fi first had to be installed in buildings so the robots could know what to do next.

  3. Mostly true Factual 29 September 2024
    “The Roomba was an easy sale, not just for its price, but because it did not demand that people had to install some infrastructure in their home environment before they could have a Roomba clean their…”

    The Roomba did not require customers to install any infrastructure before use; it needed only a standard electrical outlet for its charger.

  4. Mostly true Factual 1 January 2024
    “I did an analysis of the lack of videos showing any practical looking flights of any potential eVTOL solution”

    In late 2022 Brooks analysed the lack of videos showing any practical-looking flights of any eVTOL vehicle, despite multi-billion dollar company valuations.

  5. Resolved true Factual 22 June 2023
    “The long tail is not solved by learning, fire chief not happy with humanless vehicles in SF”

    The San Francisco fire chief is unhappy with driverless vehicles in the city.

All of them

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