Tesla Robotaxi Service Expands to San Antonio

At 5 a.m. local time (U.S. Central Time) on Monday, Tesla's unsupervised Robotaxi autonomous ride-hailing service officially launched in San Antonio, Texas. Tesla had previously rolled out the service in Fort Worth, Texas, on November 2. The service area opened in San Antonio covers approximately 275 square miles (about 712 square kilometers), encompassing the entire downtown area and nearly all areas inside Loop 410, and extending beyond the loop in most directions. To the north, the service area extends along Loop 1604 between Interstate 10 and U.S. Route 281, and slightly beyond Loop 1604 northward along Interstate 10; to the west it extends beyond State Highway 151, to the east past Interstate 35, and to the south beyond Loop 410 to near Interstate 37. According to figures released by Tesla, the current unsupervised Robotaxi service areas by city are as follows: San Antonio approximately 275 square miles, Austin 272 square miles, Houston 254 square miles, Fort Worth 143 square miles, Dallas 81 square miles, Miami 31 square miles, Orlando 26 square miles, and Tampa 24 square miles. With the addition of San Antonio, Tesla now offers unsupervised Robotaxi service in eight cities, with all service areas combined covering approximately 4.2 million people. The full operational area tally also includes the supervised service area in the San Francisco Bay Area. A recent analysis showed that Tesla's actual Robotaxi pickup and drop-off zones in Texas are 22% to 41% smaller than the officially announced areas. On last month's third-quarter earnings call, Tesla listed Las Vegas, Phoenix, Jacksonville, and San Antonio as its next batch of Robotaxi operating cities. San Antonio currently uses the Model Y for its Robotaxi service. Tesla recently extended Robotaxi operating hours in Austin and added a Calm Mode. Tesla currently has more than 300 Cybercabs in operation in Austin. This month, Tesla plans to launch Cybercab ride-hailing service in Dallas.