Overview
- The Texas DMV published a public registry on May 28, 2026, listing Waymo with 577 authorized robotaxis and Tesla with 42 under the state’s new authorization process.
- The law that took effect May 28 requires companies to register fleets and self‑certify that vehicles meet SAE Level 4, a standard for driving without human intervention in defined conditions.
- Tesla began a paid pilot in Austin in June 2025 with onboard safety monitors, removed those monitors in January 2026, and third‑party trackers now show roughly 30 unsupervised Teslas in Austin with the rest in Dallas and Houston.
- Federal filings show Tesla’s Austin robotaxi program logged 17 incidents from July 2025 through April 2026, including two minor injuries and one hospitalization, and those incidents occurred while human supervisors were aboard.
- The DMV data highlights a wide gap in scale — Waymo operates hundreds in Texas and thousands nationally — and the public registry will shape regulatory and investor scrutiny because Texas lets firms self‑certify technical readiness rather than perform a state technical review.