Tesla Robotaxi Expansion

Tesla has started offering fully driverless robotaxi rides in Dallas and Houston, its first expansion beyond Austin. (fox4news.com; finance.yahoo.com) The rollout began on Saturday, April 18, when Tesla’s robotaxi account said service was “rolling out” in the two cities. In Dallas, FOX 4 reported rides start Monday in select neighborhoods using Model Y vehicles and run daily from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. local time. (finance.yahoo.com; fox4news.com) The service areas are small. Electrek reported geofences of roughly 25 square miles in each city, and Sherwood said it appeared Tesla had only one unsupervised car available in Dallas and one in Houston in the first days of service. (electrek.co; sherwood.news) Tesla is using Model Y sport utility vehicles, not the two-seat Cybercab it showed off last year. FOX 4 reported the Cybercab is expected to join the fleet later, while the current app lets riders unlock the car, start the trip, and save seat, climate, and music settings to a profile. (fox4news.com) The expansion puts Tesla deeper into a Texas robotaxi market where Waymo already operates at larger scale. TechCrunch reported Tesla now offers robotaxi service in three Texas cities, while Electrek said Waymo’s Texas footprint remains broader than Tesla’s new Dallas and Houston zones. (techcrunch.com; electrek.co) Federal regulators are also watching the category through crash reports. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says its Standing General Order requires companies to report certain crashes involving automated driving systems and Level 2 driver-assistance systems, creating a public record for robotaxi operators and carmakers. (nhtsa.gov) Tesla’s Austin service has already supplied part of that record. Bloomberg and CBS News reported in February that Tesla had disclosed 14 robotaxi crashes in Austin since the service launched there in June 2025, including incidents involving property damage and minor injuries. (bloomberg.com; cbsnews.com) A separate review of the latest National Highway Traffic Safety Administration automated-driving crash database by Not a Tesla App counted 825 reported Automated Driving System incidents overall, including 697 for Waymo and 18 for Tesla. The same review said Tesla’s smaller total reflects a much smaller unsupervised fleet, while Waymo’s higher total comes from a larger driverless operation spread across several dense cities. (notateslaapp.com) Early riders in Dallas and Houston have posted videos and accounts describing abrupt braking, odd lane choices, long waits, and sparse vehicle availability. FOX 4 said riders and watchdogs have documented sudden braking, improper lane changes, and curb navigation, while Inc. reported complaints about limited coverage and unpredictable driving behavior. (fox4news.com; inc.com) Tesla has kept the launch price low enough to undercut some rivals, at least in Dallas. FOX 4 reported introductory pricing of $3.25 plus $1.00 per mile, and said some early fares came in at more than 50% below competing autonomous services. (fox4news.com) For now, the Dallas and Houston launch looks less like a citywide takeover than a live road test with paying passengers. The next measure is whether Tesla adds more cars and bigger service areas without adding to the crash file it already built in Austin. (sherwood.news; cbsnews.com)