Tesla expands Robotaxi area in Austin again

Tesla is expanding its Robotaxi service area again for the second time in a week.

The company originally launched its autonomous ride-hailing service in June, open to a limited number of people and in a fairly small area in South Austin.

But Tesla has been expanding its Robotaxi coverage on a very fast track: First, it expanded the the original coverage area into a much larger, penis-shaped area over Austin. And just days ago, Tesla launched a similar, though far less autonomous, Robotaxi-named service in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Now, Tesla has expanded (via Teslarati) the geofenced area where its Robotaxis operate in Austin once more. It now covers an estimated 80 square miles, nearly matching Waymo's autonomous taxi coverage in the area.

Judging by the way other autonomous ride-hailing services have been expanding over the years — for example, Alphabet's Waymo has been around for a decade, and it added new cities and areas at a much slower pace — Tesla seems to be confident in its Robotaxis, which consist of regular Tesla Model Y vehicles. Musk recently laid out an incredibly ambitious plan to offer Robotaxis to "half the population of the U.S." by the end of 2025.

Meanwhile, Waymo has been picking up the pace in its own autonomous taxi expansion; the company recently said it would launch in Dallas in 2026.