July 31 (Reuters) - Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on

Thursday the company has launched its ride-hailing service in

San Francisco's Bay Area, but did not clarify whether it is

using self-driving vehicles.

California has not permitted Tesla to offer robotaxi

service, and the limited rollout highlights the regulatory

hurdles the company faces as it looks to pivot to robotaxis amid

cooling electric vehicle sales.

The state's rules could potentially delay Musk's target of

deploying robotaxis across half the U.S. by year-end.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) said last

week that Tesla was not allowed to "test or transport the

public" with or without a driver in a self-driving vehicle.

Tesla had notified the CPUC of its intent to include friends

and family of employees, plus select public participants in the

Bay Area service, but only in human-operated vehicles.

But the regulator reiterated that Tesla must first complete

a pilot phase without charging customers before pursuing

full-autonomous permits, a process that has taken competitors

such as Alphabet's Waymo years to navigate.

"You can now ride-hail a Tesla in the SF Bay Area, in

addition to Austin," Musk said in a post on X, without adding

other details.

Tesla, in a post on X, showed the service area would include

the San Francisco area, San Jose and Berkeley.

Tesla only has a permit from California's Department of

Motor Vehicles to test self-driving vehicles with a safety

driver on public roads. It does not have the permits needed to

collect fares in robotaxis.

The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request

for additional details.

(Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru;

Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Shinjini Ganguli)