When Elon Musk boasted in July that he was “getting the regulatory permission” to bring Tesla’s Robotaxi service to the San Francisco Bay Area, this was apparently news to regulators.

As Reuters reports, both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the California State Transportation Agency were startled by Tesla’s ambitious plans to bring its self-driving cabs to another state. Officials practically begged the automaker to publicly clarify its next steps and clear up the considerable “confusion” — apparently to no avail.

This lack of clear direction exemplifies how messy the EV company’s stab at being a Waymo competitor has been so far — not to mention the underhanded tactics and mealymouthed language it uses to avoid admitting the true limitations of its tech.

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