Tesla Is Growing Its Service For Robot Taxis

Tesla is rolling out its robotaxi service in Dallas and Houston, the electric vehicle maker said Saturday, marking a further expansion of its new service in the United States since launching in Austin, Texas, last year.

Tesla’s robotaxi account on Xu announced the launch and released two videos showing their best-selling Model Y SUVs being driven around two cities without a human driver or front-seat monitors.

They also released two images of a map outlining the boundaries of the service, but did not reveal further details such as fleet size or pricing.

“Try the Tesla Robotaxi in Dallas and Houston!” said CEO Elon Musk, retweeting the X post.

Tesla’s move comes as the robotaxi business has regained momentum, with Alphabet’s (GOOG) Waymo and Amazon’s (AMZN) Zoox accelerating expansion.

The expansion of the robotaxi service and the wider adoption of their fully autonomous software, a version of which underpins the technology, is key to Tesla’s growth strategy as Musk shifts the company’s focus to artificial intelligence and robotics away from electric vehicles.

Tesla first deployed a small group of autonomous taxis in the Austin area with human safety monitors and other restrictions. The company has since expanded its service area and started removing monitors.

Last year, Tesla also launched a ride-hailing service in the San Francisco Bay Area. Musk has promised to rapidly expand robotaxi service in the US, but has fallen short of earlier predictions that his robotaxi would be widely operating in multiple US metropolitan areas by the end of 2025.

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