Tesla is officially celebrating the one-year anniversary of its Robotaxi service, marking a major milestone as its driverless ride-hailing network transitions to a completely unsupervised model.
The service originally launched on June 22, 2025, in Austin, Texas, using a fleet of modified Model Y vehicles. At the time, the program required a human safety monitor to sit in the front passenger seat. One year later, the network has evolved dramatically.
Tesla removed front-seat safety monitors entirely earlier this year, shifting the Austin operations to a fully unsupervised network spanning the entire metropolitan area, including local suburbs and the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The driverless service has also expanded beyond its initial launch city, with autonomous fleets now running in Dallas and Houston.
Tesla’s Robotaxi timelines for broader US city rollouts have slipped notably behind earlier projections. The service launched in Austin in June 2025 and has since expanded to unsupervised operations in Dallas and Houston, Texas, but remains limited to a relatively small fleet in those markets.
In early 2026, Tesla had announced ambitious plans for seven additional cities (including Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas) in the first half of 2026, yet by its Q1 2026 earnings report the company quietly removed those specific timelines, shifting language to the vaguer “preparations underway” amid regulatory hurdles, technical refinements, and a cautious approach to safety.
We know there’s “Elon time”, as prior optimistic forecasts of covering half the US population or reaching 8–10 metros have yet to materialize. But still, the cautious rollout is smart, as right now the media is jumping on any opportunity to criticize Tesla.
With over a year of real-world commercial ride-hailing data now under its belt, Tesla is preparing to scale the service further, targeting additional expansions as volume manufacturing of the Cybercab ramps up throughout the rest of the year.
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