Tesla Robotaxi Runs Until 1 AM in Austin, Adds COTA Before F1 Weekend

Credit: Tesla Robotaxi/X

Tesla’s Robotaxi service in Austin is now taking ride requests until 1 AM, and its service area has grown to take in Circuit of the Americas right as Formula 1 rolls into town for the United States Grand Prix, according to David Moss on X. The new cutoff is one hour later than the 6 AM to midnight window Tesla listed for Austin in its Q3 2026 update, which came out the same day Ashok Elluswamy said Robotaxi would soon run until 2 AM, with 24/7 rides by year end.

Moss shared the change at 10:38 PM PT on October 22, which was 12:38 AM in Austin, along with a screenshot from the Robotaxi app. A banner under the search bar reads “Last call is 1am · Limited to nearby dropoffs,” which suggests rides booked in that last stretch of the night are kept to shorter trips. On the map, the white geofence line now wraps around the racetrack southeast of downtown, running down toward Elroy and Farm to Market Road 812.

Searching “cota” in the app brought up COTALAND Theme Park and COTA Karting about 11 miles away, both listed under a “Service blocked” heading when the screenshot was taken. It isn’t clear whether that label comes from the late-night limit on nearby drop-offs or from restrictions around the track itself, so how pickups and drop-offs work once race crowds arrive is the next thing to watch.

Breaking:

Tesla Robotaxi expands operations in Austin, TX to now 1AM
&
expands Geofence to also include Circuit of the America’s racetrack where Formula 1 will be taking place this weekend

— David Moss (@DavidMoss) October 22, 2026

Tesla hasn’t announced either change on its Tesla or Robotaxi accounts on X as of this writing, so for now the details come from what riders are seeing in the app.

Formula 1 fans are the obvious audience for the bigger map, since the United States Grand Prix runs October 22 to 25 at Circuit of the Americas. Practice is on Friday, October 23, qualifying follows on Saturday, and the race starts Sunday, October 25, at 3 PM CT. Anyone who has crawled out of a COTA parking lot after a race will see the appeal of skipping that part, although a driverless Model Y still has to sit in the same traffic as everyone else.

Hours in Austin have been creeping later since the summer. Robotaxi ran from 6 AM to 10 PM starting in late August, then moved to 11 PM at the start of October, when Elon Musk said the main challenge at night was avoiding pets that are hard to see on dark roads. On the October 21 earnings call, Elluswamy said 2 AM was coming “pretty soon” and that Tesla plans to unlock 24/7 operation before the end of the year.

Austin’s service area has been on a similar path. In June, Tesla expanded unsupervised Robotaxi rides across the greater Austin area, adding places like Pflugerville and Manor along with trips on Interstate 35, and the track sits out past the southeast edge of the city.

Would you take a driverless Robotaxi to the race this weekend, or save it for a 1 AM ride home?