Recently, Musk's "painting cake" remarks have been slapped in the face again. Previously, Musk has repeatedly announced: "Tesla is only a few months away from launching the Robotaxi driverless taxi service in California."However, California Department of Motor Vehicles records show that Tesla took no substantive action in 2025.
Data shows that the company’s autonomous driving test miles on California roads in 2025 have been zero for the sixth consecutive year.
It is understood that in California’s regulatory system, recording test mileage is a core prerequisite for autonomous driving companies to obtain commercial operation licenses.
This system requires companies to gradually pass a series of licenses before they are allowed to operate self-driving online ride-hailing services like Waymo.
Currently, Tesla only holds an entry-level permit from the DMV, which requires a safety officer to be in the driver's seat during testing.
A DMV spokesman said Tesla has not applied for any additional permits.
According to the DMV’s new draft regulations, before companies apply for a test permit without a safety officer,Must complete at least 50,000 miles of self-driving testing on California public roads under the supervision of a safety officer.
However, Tesla has not logged any mileage to state regulators since 2019, with total mileage since 2016 being just 562 miles.
In comparison, Waymo accumulated more than 13 million test miles from 2014 to 2023 and received seven different regulatory approvals before it was finally allowed to charge passengers.
