June 6 (Reuters) - Tesla is trying to prevent the city

of Austin, Texas, from releasing public records to Reuters

involving the EV maker's planned launch of self-driving

robotaxis in the city this month.

The news agency in February requested communications between

Tesla and Austin officials over the previous two years. The

request followed CEO Elon Musk's announcement in January that

Tesla would launch fare-collecting robotaxis on Austin public

streets.

Austin public-information officer Dan Davis told Reuters on

April 1 that "third parties" had asked the city to withhold the

records to protect their "privacy or property interests." Austin

officials on April 7 requested an opinion on the news agency's

request from the Texas Attorney General's office, which handles

public-records disputes.

On April 16, an attorney for Tesla wrote the AG

objecting to the release of "confidential, proprietary,

competitively sensitive commercial, and/or trade secret

information" contained in emails between Tesla and Austin

officials. The Tesla attorney wrote that providing the documents

to Reuters would reveal "Tesla's deployment procedure, process,

status and strategy" and "irreparably harm Tesla."

Tesla and the Texas Attorney General's office did not

respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

Neal Falgoust, who oversees public records issues for

Austin's Law Department, said the city "takes no position on the

confidential nature of the information at issue" but is required

to seek the Attorney General's opinion when "a third-party

asserts that their information is proprietary and should not be

released."

Musk has staked Tesla's future on self-driving vehicles he has

promised for a decade but hasn't delivered, making Austin's

robotaxi launch closely watched as a potential milestone. Some

analysts and investors attribute the majority of Tesla's stock

market value to hopes for robotaxis and humanoid robots it has

yet to deliver.

Little is known about Tesla's plans in Austin. The company

has said it aims to initially deploy between 10 and 20

driverless robotaxis in restricted geographic areas of Austin,

which it has not publicly identified.

In an April 23 response to Tesla's letter, a Reuters lawyer

wrote that Tesla's intent to deploy the unproven technology on

Texas roadways makes its plans "an issue of enormous importance

to Texas and the public at large" and underscored the public's

right to know.

Falgoust, the Austin law department official, did not

respond to questions about whether the public was entitled to

information about Tesla's driverless technology.

Texas state law requires the Attorney General's office to

decide within 45 business days, which would be next week.