Tesla officially rolls out first driverless robotaxis in Austin

Tesla has officially launched its first driverless robotaxis in Austin.

Elon Musk's owned carmaker company said on Wednesday it was rolling out its unsupervised robotaxis in the Austin Metro area in Texas, as the ‌electric vehicle maker looks to speed up its autonomous ride-hailing operation.

Expanding the robotaxi service and wider adoption of its full self-driving software—a version of which underpins the technology and is key to Tesla's growth strategy after CEO Elon Musk pivoted the company's focus from EVs to AI and robotics.

"Unsupervised Robotaxi now in the entire Austin Metro area," Tesla's official robotaxi account said in a post on X.

The service has been operating in Austin for nearly a year, where customers sometimes experience ‌wait times in excess of 30 minutes.

According to Austin officials, Tesla has roughly 50 vehicles operating in the city, while Alphabet's Waymo runs more than 250 in the same area.

Musk said last month he expects fully self-driving cars without human safety monitors to become more widespread in the United States later this year, after already being introduced in Texas.

Austin, Texas, is highly strategic. It is home to Tesla’s global headquarters (Gigafactory Texas) and features a state regulatory environment that is highly permissive and welcoming to autonomous vehicle testing and commercialization.

Tesla Robotaxis:

Tesla has officially launched its first fleet of fully driverless commercial robotaxis in Austin, marking a massive milestone for autonomous ride-hailing.

Model y is Tesla’s best-selling crossover, offering ample passenger space, easy entry and exit, and a ride height that provides its camera-based Full Self-Driving (FSD) suite an excellent vantage point for navigating complex city traffic

Newly launched 'Model Y' robotaxis rely entirely on external cameras and advanced neural networks to perceive the environment.

The built-in end-to-end AI uses neural networks trained on millions of driving hours to interpret roads on the fly, allowing it to theoretically drive anywhere.