In ramping up robotaxi service, Tesla is hoping to slingshot past Waymo, another autonomous car service that operates in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin, according to its website. Last week, Waymo applied for a permit to test its vehicles in New York City.

Tesla is aiming to launch a robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, but critics say they still haven't cracked autonomous driving technology.

It wasn’t walking away from autonomy," GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said last week. "It was walking away from the robotaxi side of it.”