Tesla has launched its robotaxi service in Dallas and Houston, expanding beyond its Austin base with fully unsupervised vehicles operating in defined areas of both cities.
The company's official robotaxi account on X posted videos on Saturday showing Model Y SUVs operating with no human driver or front-seat safety monitor, alongside map images outlining service boundaries in each city.
"Try Tesla Robotaxi in Dallas & Houston!" chief executive Elon Musk said, reposting the announcement.
The Dallas launch covers a roughly 30 to 35 square mile area taking in the city's urban core, University Park, Highland Park, Uptown, Downtown and surrounding neighbourhoods.
Houston's initial zone is smaller, spanning approximately 12 to 15 square miles focused on the northwest of the city around Jersey Village and Willowbrook.
The launches appear to have gone straight to unsupervised operation, bypassing the phased approach Tesla used in Austin, where it first deployed vehicles with human safety monitors before gradually removing them.
Early riders confirmed on social media that the vehicles were operating without any human occupant in the front seats.
Tesla did not disclose fleet size or pricing for either city.
The expansion comes roughly ten months after Tesla first deployed a limited group of self-driving taxis in Austin in June 2025, initially covering a 20 square mile area with safety monitors on board.
That zone has since grown to approximately 245 square miles, more than twelve times its original size, while the monitors have been removed from an increasing proportion of rides.
Tesla also launched a ride-hailing service in the San Francisco Bay Area last year.
Musk had predicted the service would be operating across eight to ten US metro areas by the end of 2025, naming Nevada, Florida and Arizona as targets, but the company missed that timeline.
Dallas and Houston are the first new cities to come online in 2026, with Las Vegas, Phoenix and Miami reported as the next priority markets.
The move comes as the autonomous ride-hailing market accelerates.
Alphabet's Waymo, which provides more than 250,000 rides per week across its existing markets, and Amazon's Zoox are both speeding up their own expansion plans.
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Tesla's approach differs from its competitors in relying on a camera-only system powered by artificial intelligence, without the lidar sensors used by Waymo and most other autonomous vehicle developers.
Tesla is also expected to begin volume production of its purpose-built Cybercab, a two-seat vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals, this month
The recap
- Tesla launches robotaxi service in Dallas and Houston.
- Company posted maps but disclosed no fleet size or pricing.
- Musk promised rapid expansion but missed end-2025 prediction.
