Tesla plans Cybercab expansion to Dallas and other cities

Tesla says it will begin expanding its Cybercab robotaxi service beyond Austin, Texas, with a launch in Dallas next month and plans to reach other cities by the end of this year. The company also plans to start selling Cybercabs to fleet operators by year-end.

Tesla already runs small fleets of Model Y robotaxis in Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando and Tampa. Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call that Tesla is preparing to scale Cybercab production, while noting that regulatory approvals are needed to deploy vehicles as quickly as they are built.

The expansion could bring Tesla into closer competition with Waymo, which has more than 4,000 robotaxis operating across more than a dozen U.S. cities. Tesla says the Cybercab is cheaper and easier to build, but it needs to expand beyond Austin to demonstrate that it can compete on price.

Tesla did not provide figures for paid robotaxi rides or miles on the call. Its latest shareholder letter replaced a chart of “Cumulative Paid Robotaxi Miles” with one showing “Cumulative Unsupervised Robotaxi Miles,” which counts distance driven regardless of whether passengers paid. Taneja said utilization was improving but gave no specifics.

Tesla’s robotaxi plans also face regulatory and technical questions. In September, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into whether the Cybercab complies with federal vehicle safety standards. Tesla has said it is compliant, though the vehicle lacks features required by current standards, including a brake pedal and side mirrors. Tesla autonomy vice president Ashok Elluswamy said technology, as well as regulation, remains a constraint on expansion.