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Tesla Rolls Out Driverless Robotaxis in Dallas and Houston With Tiny Fleets

The cautious pilot uses a handful of Model Ys in tight service zones, prompting fresh scrutiny of safety, scale, timing, and transparency.

Overview

  • The service, which Tesla announced Saturday, now has two unsupervised Model Ys in both cities after starting with one car per market.
  • Coverage is limited to small geofenced areas of roughly 31 square miles in Dallas and 25 in Houston, and availability has been intermittent.
  • Early riders have reported issues like missed highway exits, abrupt braking, curb strikes, and wrong drop-offs, and Tesla says remote operators sometimes take control.
  • Regulatory filings from the Austin pilot list 14 crashes through February and Tesla redacted incident narratives, preventing outside reviewers from assessing cause.
  • The Texas expansion arrives days before Wednesday’s earnings call as analysts debate Tesla’s path to scale, with rival Waymo fielding larger fleets and broader zones using lidar, radar, and cameras.