Tesla $TSLA announced that its unsupervised robotaxi service now covers the entire Austin metro area, a significant expansion of the geographic zone in which its autonomous vehicles can operate without a human safety monitor.
Confirmation came via a post on Tesla's official Robotaxi X $TWTR account, which announced that unsupervised vehicles would now be permitted to operate across the full metro. Previously, unsupervised Tesla vehicles were restricted to a small portion of South Austin, according to Electrek. Each successive phase of the rollout has approximately doubled the zone's footprint, with the boundary expanding in several stages since the program began.
The fleet serving the expanded zone, however, remains small. After reaching a cumulative high of 25 vehicles in late April, the number of unsupervised cars on Austin roads has since fallen to around 20. A separate presentation by Austin officials cited in Reuters put the number at roughly 50 vehicles operating across the city.
Tesla's robotaxi program launched in Austin in June 2025. The company expanded to Dallas and Houston in April, though those markets have also seen little fleet growth, with three vehicles in Dallas and six in Houston, according to Electrek.
The Austin program is dwarfed by Waymo, the Alphabet $GOOGL-owned robotaxi operator. Waymo told the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles it is running 577 robotaxis across Texas, with about 300 in Austin, according to the Austin American-Statesman. Across its U.S. operations, Waymo's fleet totals approximately 3,000 vehicles and handles more than 500,000 fare-paying rides each week, according to Electrek.
According to Electrek, Musk has tied any significant fleet expansion to the completion of a ground-up rebuild of the company's Full Self-Driving software known as version 15, a dependency that effectively delays meaningful growth until late 2026 or early 2027. Musk predicted last month that autonomous vehicles operating without onboard safety attendants would see broader U.S. deployment before the end of the year, following their initial introduction in Texas, according to Reuters.
Two other competitors have also outpaced Tesla in the Austin market: Avride, headquartered in Austin, has registered 317 autonomous vehicles in Texas, while Amazon $AMZN's Zoox — which only recently began Austin testing — fields a roster of 35 vehicles, according to the Statesman. Federal safety reports cited by the Statesman show Waymo recording 75 crashes in Austin, while Tesla has reported 17 and Avride 20 since each service began operating.