Tesla Robotaxi Launches in Fort Worth

At 6 a.m. Central Time on November 2, Tesla's Robotaxi ride-hailing service launched in Fort Worth. The service operates entirely without safety monitors, and no human supervisors are present in the vehicles. This is the first new city where Tesla has launched its Robotaxi service in nearly three months, following the previous openings in Orlando and Tampa in late July. With this, Fort Worth joins Austin, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa as the seventh city to offer driverless Robotaxi ride-hailing service. Fort Worth's geofenced service area covers approximately 143 square miles (about 370.4 square kilometers), centered on downtown Fort Worth and extending west to White Settlement and south to Benbrook; to the north it covers Saginaw, stretching along Interstate 35W beyond Loop 820; the eastern boundary adjoins Haltom City and Forest Hill. Fort Worth thus becomes Tesla's third-largest driverless Robotaxi operating area, behind only Austin at 272 square miles (about 704.5 square kilometers) and Houston at 254 square miles (about 657.9 square kilometers). If the Bay Area region—covering 1,098 square miles (about 2,844 square kilometers) with human safety drivers in the vehicles—is included, Fort Worth ranks fourth. Houston recently expanded its geofenced area from roughly 25 square miles to 254 square miles. Tesla recently extended Robotaxi operating hours in Austin to 2 a.m., providing 20 hours of ride service per day, and added a Quiet Mode. Fort Worth did not appear on Tesla's previously announced list of cities slated for Robotaxi expansion; the most recently announced next batch of expansion targets includes Las Vegas, Phoenix, Jacksonville, and San Antonio. Tesla recently began offering free first rides to new Robotaxi users, a promotion currently available in Houston and Dallas. Tesla's Cybercab is scheduled to launch in Dallas later this month, making Dallas the second city after Austin to deploy the model. Fort Worth currently operates Model Y-based Robotaxis within its 143-square-mile geofenced area.