By Norihiko Shirouzu and Abhirup Roy AUSTIN (Reuters) -After driverless Tesla Model Ys were spotted traversing Austin, Texas streets on Sunday morning, CEO Elon Musk posted on his social platform X that Tesla's "robotaxi launch" would start this afternoon with rides for a flat fee of $4.

June 22 (UPI) -- Tesla will begin its launch of robotic taxis in Austin, Texas, on Sunday afternoon, Elon Musk announced. "The @Tesla_AI robotaxi launch begins in Austin this afternoon with customers paying a $4.20 flat fee!" Musk said in a post on social media.

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.