Tesla launches robotaxi service in Austin, accelerating autonomous vehicle push AI

Investing.com -- Tesla announced Wednesday the launch of its unsupervised robotaxis across the Austin Metro area, accelerating the company’s push into autonomous ride-hailing.

Expanding the robotaxi service and driving broader adoption of its full self-driving software are now central to Tesla’s growth strategy, following CEO Elon Musk’s shift from EVs to AI and robotics.

“Unsupervised Robotaxi now in the entire Austin Metro area,” Tesla’s robotaxi account announced on X.

The service, active in Austin for nearly a year, has faced customer wait times exceeding 30 minutes.

"As of 10am today unsupervised is working in the whole geofence. In one currently heading to the north part of the map," said a user on X who first noticed the change.

Austin officials report Tesla operates about 50 robotaxis in the city, compared to over 250 vehicles run by Alphabet’s Waymo.

Last month, Musk said he expects fully self-driving cars without human safety monitors to become increasingly common in the U.S. later this year, following their rollout in Texas.

Uber and Israel-based Autobrains said on Monday they plan to launch a robotaxi programme in Munich in collaboration with U.S. chipmaker Nvidia, marking a push to scale autonomous ride-hailing in Europe.

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