Chinese electric-vehicle makers led by BYD beat Tesla in the competition to produce affordable electric vehicles. Now, many of those same fierce competitors are pulling into the passing lane in the global race to produce self-driving cars.

As Elon Musk touts robotaxis in Austin, federal regulators are investigating whether Tesla’s system is dangerous even with a human behind the wheel.

Tesla’s ‘Supervised Full Self-Driving’ (FSD) in customer vehicles hasn’t improved all year, based on the best available data previously praised by CEO Elon Musk. Now Musk points to having to wait until later this year, but wait for what?

Musk said in a social media post this week that Tesla’s long-awaited robotaxi service will roll onto the streets of Austin, Texas on June 22. The Tesla CEO is betting the company’s future on autonomous vehicles (AV) and a robotaxi service – which will hopefully inject much-needed cash just as the company’s sales and profits are slumping.

Chinese EV makers are moving quickly to develop driver-assistance systems in a market where car-buyers are demanding them at a faster pace than in other regions, analysts say. Their ability to do so at lower costs poses the biggest threat to Tesla’s new autonomy-based business model.

The car service will be geofenced to Austin using Level 2 autonomous driving, meaning it still needs human supervision behind the wheel.

Auto insurance giant Progressive warns on its website that self-driving cars aren’t likely to lower insurance rates and could even drive up costs due to expensive repairs.