Tesla Robotaxis appear to go fully unsupervised in Austin ahead of Cybercab launch

Recent data indicates that Tesla has transitioned its ride-hailing test program in Austin, Texas, to run entirely without in-car safety drivers.

According to findings from a crowdsourced tracking platform, all recorded passenger trips over a recent two-week period were conducted fully driverless, utilizing a fleet of over fifty different vehicles. This development represents a notable surge in unsupervised operations compared to previous months when the driverless fleet appeared to be stagnating or shrinking. The creator of the tracking tool noted that a portion of this statistical jump stems from updated data collection methods, but confirmed the shift toward driverless rides in Austin is a genuine operational change. Additionally, similar expansions in autonomous testing have been observed in other major Texas cities like Dallas and Houston, suggesting a broader regional push by the electric vehicle manufacturer.\n\nThis pivot to driverless operations comes as the company prepares to introduce its custom-designed Cybercab, which is engineered entirely without manual driving controls such as steering wheels or pedals. The successful deployment of fully unsupervised trips is critical for the upcoming launch of this specialized vehicle, which is expected to begin scaling in the near future. While the company's leadership previously anticipated a swift expansion of its autonomous network, specific vehicle and location targets have remained vague. Currently, the automaker's autonomous ride-hailing operations still lag significantly behind established competitors like Alphabet's Waymo, which maintains a much larger fleet of thousands of fully driverless vehicles operating across multiple metropolitan areas nationwide.