Elon Musk Hails Austin For Robotaxi Launch As Waymo Suspends Operations In Downtown LA Amid Anti-ICE Protests

Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk said Austin is a better alternative to kickstart Robotaxi services than Los Angeles amid anti-ICE protests in the city.

What Happened: Ahead of June 12's Robotaxi launch in Austin, Texas, Musk took to social media platform X on Tuesday to hail the city as a better option to launch autonomous taxis.

"Austin >> LA for robotaxi launch lol," the billionaire said in his post on X.

Why It Matters: Musk's post comes in as Alphabet Inc.'s GOOGL GOOG Waymo had earlier announced it would suspend its services in Downtown Los Angeles after anti-ICE protests in the area resulted in vandalism of the Waymo fleet.

Over 5 Waymo autonomous vehicles were affected by the vandalism, resulting in a loss of over $900,000. The vehicles represented over 0.4% of Waymo's entire fleet of autonomous taxis.

Musk's EV giant is gearing up for the Robotaxi launch in Austin, as the company was officially added to the list of AV operators in the city by the local government. The list also includes Waymo as well as Amazon.com Inc.'s AMZN autonomous taxi service Zoox.

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