Tesla expands Robotaxi tests

Tesla has expanded its driverless Robotaxi service to Dallas and Houston, adding two new Texas cities on April 18. (techcrunch.com) Tesla announced the rollout in a post from its Robotaxi account on X, with a 14-second video showing a Model Y driving without a person in the front seat. Reports and map images indicate the service is limited to small geofenced areas in each city. (techcrunch.com, electrek.co) The expansion follows Tesla’s Austin launch in June 2025, and TechCrunch reported Tesla began offering rides there without safety drivers in January 2026. Tesla’s investor relations site says the company reports first-quarter 2026 results on Wednesday, April 22. (techcrunch.com, ir.tesla.com) A robotaxi service is a ride-hailing network that uses software instead of a human driver, usually inside a tightly mapped service zone. Tesla’s first step in Dallas and Houston appears to be visibility, not volume: Electrek reported no fleet size data, and local coverage described the launch as limited availability. (electrek.co, techtimes.com) Texas already has other robotaxi operators on the road. Waymo and Uber began offering autonomous rides in Austin on March 4, 2025, and Waymo said in February 2026 that it opened fully autonomous public service in Dallas and Houston as part of a four-city expansion. (uber.com, waymo.com) Safety remains part of the backdrop. CBS News reported in February that Tesla’s Austin robotaxis had been involved in 14 crashes since the June 2025 launch, based on crash reports submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (cbsnews.com) Tesla has not publicly detailed fleet size, ride volume, or pricing for the new Dallas and Houston zones in its launch post. For now, the company has turned a one-city Texas pilot into a three-city test, with the smallest details still the hardest to see. (techcrunch.com, electrek.co)