AUSTIN: Tesla deployed a small group of self-driving taxis picking up paying passengers on Sunday in Austin, Texas, with CEO Elon Musk announcing the `robotaxi launch` and social-media influencers posting videos of their first rides.

The event marked the first time Tesla cars without human drivers have carried paying riders, a business that Musk sees as crucial to the electric car maker`s financial future.

He called the moment the `culmination of a decade of hard work` in a post on his social-media platform X and noted that `the AI chip and software teams were built from scratch within Tesla.` Teslas were spotted early on Sunday in a neighbourhood called South Congress with no one in the driver`s seat but one person in the passenger seat. The automaker planned a small trial with about 10 vehicles and front-seat riders acting as `safety monitors,` though it remained unclear how much control they had over the vehicles.

In recent days, the automaker sent invites to a select group of influencers for a carefully monitored robotaxi trial in a limited zone. The rides are being offered for a flat fee of $4.20, Musk said on X.

Tesla investor and social-media personality Sawyer Merritt posted videos on X showing him ordering, getting picked up and taking a ride to a nearby bar and restaurant, Frazier`s Long and Low, using a Tesla robotaxi app. If Tesla succeeds with the small deployment, it still faces major challenges in delivering on Musk`s promises to scale up quickly in Austin and other cities, industry experts say.-Reuters