article A Tesla Model 3 at the company's store in Palo Alto, California, US, on Tuesday, Jan 28, 2025. Tesla Inc. is scheduled to release earnings figures on January 29. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images SAN FRANCISCO - Tesla is reported to have had plans to rollout a robotaxi service in San Francisco as early as this weekend. But state officials say they are not permitted to do such a thing and haven't even applied for a permit. Tesla, Elon Musk's company, notified the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Thursday that they intended to extend their Transportation Charter Permit to (TCP) to offer service to family and friends of employees as well as select members of the public. Business Insider reported that California's Department of Motor Vehicles met with Tesla representatives, but that that company has not yet applied for a permit to test driverless cars, nor the deployment of autonomous vehicles. The DMV regulates the testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles. State Senator Scott Wiener agreed. "Tesla doesn’t have permits to deploy autonomous vehicles in California and hasn’t even applied for permits. If Tesla actually deploys its AVs in San Francisco without permits, these vehicles should be seized and impounded. We have permitting & safety rules for a reason. Elon Musk isn’t exempt from those rules," Wiener said in a statement on Friday. The CPUC told KTVU, while Tesla does have a TCP through the commission, that permit is for a human driver to drive a traditional vehicle, not an autonomous vehicle. The regulatory agency responded to reports that Tesla had sent an internal memo to staff, notifying them of plans to launch the robotaxi service in the city starting on Saturday. "Tesla has not received approval from the CPUC to offer autonomous passenger service to customers, paid or unpaid, with or without a driver," CPUC told KTVU in a reply. "To summarize, Tesla is not allowed to test or transport the public (paid or unpaid) in an AV with or without a driver. Tesla is allowed to transport the public (paid or unpaid) in a non-AV, which of course would have a driver." Additionally, the commission said that Tesla on Thursday, sought to expand its geofence to include the entire Bay Area from Sausalito and Berkeley down to Los Gatos. Musk has already launched an AI robotaxi fleet in Austin, Texas. KTVU has reached out to Tesla for comment, but has not yet heard back. Featured