SAN FRANCISCO, June 22 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's vision of

Tesla's future is set for a public test on Sunday, when

a dozen or so self-driving cars in Austin, Texas start a

limited, paid robotaxi service.

Though Tesla is dispensing with a webcast product launch

event helmed by Musk, fans will be scouring the internet for

videos and reports from the coterie of invited riders that will

be allowed to hail the small stable of Model Y SUVs for trips

within a limited area of the city, accompanied by a Tesla safety

monitor in the front passenger seat. The driver's seat will be

empty.

"Wow. We are going to ride in driverless Teslas in just a

few days. On public roads," posted Omar Qazi, an X.com user with

635,200 followers who writes often about Tesla using the handle

@WholeMarsBlog and received an invite.

The service in Austin will have other restrictions as well.

Tesla plans to avoid bad weather, difficult intersections, and

won't take anyone below the age of 18. Musk has said he is ready

to delay the start for safety reasons, if needed.

Tesla is worth more than most of its biggest rivals

combined, and Musk has said that is supported by the company's

future ability to create robotaxis and humanoid robots. For

years, he has promised self-driving cars were just around the

corner.

Commercializing autonomous vehicles has been risky and

expensive. GM's Cruise was shut down after a fatal accident and

regulators are closely watching Tesla and its rivals, Alphabet's

Waymo, which runs a paid robotaxi service in several U.S.

cities, and Amazon's ( AMZN ) Zoox.

Tesla is also bucking the young industry's standard practice

of relying on multiple technologies to read the road, using only

cameras. That, says Musk, will be safe and much less expensive

than lidar and radar systems added by rivals. Nonetheless, Musk

says he is being "super paranoid about safety" with the

rollout.

"So far, this launch lags significantly behind the company's

promise and what competitors have already delivered," said

technology researcher Forrester's principal analyst Paul Miller.

Fans have welcomed the caution and the long-awaited arrival.

Qazi said on X, Tesla was launching "extremely cautiously, which

is good."