Tesla to expand Cybercab beyond Austin, starting in Dallas next month

Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja described the ambition broadly. “We’re starting with getting people from one place to the other, but we want to basically own transportation of any kind on Earth,” he said, adding that Tesla aims to “literally take over every part of terrestrial transportation.” Tesla has previously shown a concept for a multi-passenger vehicle called the Robovan, but it is unclear whether Taneja’s comments mean the company is working on other types of transportation.

Tesla already operates robotaxi versions of its Model Y SUV in small fleets in Dallas, Houston and the Florida cities of Miami, Orlando and Tampa. Waymo is the current U.S. robotaxi market leader, with more than 4,000 vehicles deployed across more than a dozen cities. Tesla has argued that the Cybercab is cheaper and easier to build, which should let it undercut Waymo and other operators on price, but the company must reach real scale outside Austin to prove that point.

Tesla did not disclose how much revenue the robotaxi effort is generating. CEO Elon Musk said the new ride-hailing business will not be noticeable in the company’s overall financial figures until the second quarter of 2027, and “probably a big deal by Q3 or Q4 of next year.” The company also changed a chart in its shareholder letter. Its second-quarter letter included “Cumulative Paid Robotaxi Miles,” and a close read of that chart showed a 36% decline from the first quarter, TechCrunch reported. In the new letter released Wednesday, Tesla changed the chart to “Cumulative Unsupervised Robotaxi Miles,” which shows how far fleet cars are driving whether or not they have paying riders. Asked about paid robotaxi miles, Taneja said utilization was improving but did not offer specifics.

Taneja said manufacturing scale should not be a major challenge because Tesla’s teams consider the Cybercab one of the easiest products to scale. The constraint, he said, is making sure Tesla has “all the regulatory approvals” so it can “start deploying the Cybercabs as fast as we can produce them.” Musk has long claimed regulatory approval is the biggest barrier to Tesla’s robotaxi plans. In September, hours after Tesla formally launched the Cybercab in Austin, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into whether the vehicle complies with federal motor vehicle safety standards. Automakers self-certify compliance, and Tesla has claimed the Cybercab is compliant, but the vehicle is missing features current standards require, such as a brake pedal and side mirrors. NHTSA has proposed removing some of those requirements, but the rule change is likely at least a few months away.

Not every Tesla executive agreed that regulation is the main bottleneck. Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s vice president overseeing autonomy, said the remaining constraints are “not purely regulatory” and are “technology driven.” He said Tesla initially ran the robotaxi service from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., expanded it to 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., and will soon extend it to 2 a.m., with AI software capability determining the pace. Tesla’s service still does not operate on highways or in certain conditions, though it has been spotted operating in heavy rain in Austin, something Waymo’s robotaxis have largely avoided, TechCrunch reported.

Editor's Summary Tesla is preparing to expand its Cybercab service beyond Austin, starting in Dallas next month and selling vehicles to fleet operators by year-end. The plan would bring it into closer competition with Waymo, while regulatory questions and limited disclosure on paid robotaxi miles remain unresolved.