June 3 (Reuters) – Tesla said on Wednesday it was rolling out its unsupervised robotaxis in the Austin Metro area in Texas, as the electric-vehicle maker looks to speed up its autonomous ride-hailing operation.
Expanding the robotaxi service and wider adoption of its full self-driving software – a version of which underpins the technology – is key to Tesla’s growth strategy after CEO Elon Musk pivoted the company’s focus from EVs to AI and robotics.
“Unsupervised Robotaxi now in the entire Austin Metro area,” Tesla’s official robotaxi account said in a post on X.
The service has been operating in Austin for nearly a year, where customers sometimes experience wait times in excess of 30 minutes.
According to a presentation by Austin officials, Tesla has roughly 50 vehicles operating in the city, while Alphabet’s Waymo runs more than 250 in the same area.
Musk said last month he expects fully self-driving cars without human safety monitors to become more widespread in the United States later this year, after already being introduced in Texas.
The EV-maker said in April that it was rolling out its robotaxis in Dallas and Houston.
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Pooja Desai)
