Tesla Extends Robotaxi Service In Dallas, Houston

Tesla has expanded its robotaxi service to Dallas and Houston, marking its first commercial rollout beyond Austin. The service now operates across three Texas cities without safety drivers. This technically makes Tesla the first automaker to run unsupervised ride-hailing services in multiple cities of Texas.

Tesla's official Robotaxi account on X announced the launch and posted two videos showing its best-selling Model Y ​SUVs running in the two cities with no human ​driver or monitor in the front seats. It posted two ⁠map images outlining service boundaries, but did not disclose further ​details such as fleet size or pricing. However, there’s a big catch.

A report by Electrek states that there are “virtually no cars available”. According to the report, in the first 24 hours since the launch, Tesla’s deployments in Houston and Dallas have shown availability levels ranging from 0 to 2 percent with only a short-lived spike to about 50 percent during a brief morning window before falling back to zero. This suggests the rollout may currently involve just a very limited number of vehicles in each city. Tesla has also not disclosed fleet size targets for either cities yet.

This development comes just ahead of Tesla’s Q1 earnings report which is set to be released soon. Tesla initially rolled out a limited number of self-driving taxis within a defined zone in Austin, where they operated under tight controls and with human safety monitors in place. Since then, the company has expanded the coverage area and gradually begun phasing out those monitors. 

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The automaker also introduced a ride-hailing service in the San Francisco Bay Area last year. While Elon Musk has repeatedly outlined plans for a rapid nationwide expansion of robotaxis, earlier projections of widespread operations across multiple U.S. cities by the end of 2025 have yet to be realised. In India, Tesla is planning to launch its second model after it introduced the Model Y in June last year.