Tesla Robotaxi in Austin Operates Fully Unsupervised, Data Shows

Tesla's Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, appears to be running fully without onboard safety drivers, according to the Robotaxi Tracker website. Over the past two weeks, all 170 trips monitored in the city involved no safety personnel in the vehicle, spanning a fleet of 54 cars.

Ethan McCanna, who created the tracker, told The Verge the data reflects a significant change from earlier this year. In the summer months, Tesla's unsupervised Robotaxi fleet in the US was actually shrinking. Just last week, the tracker recorded only 28 active unsupervised vehicles across six markets in Texas and Florida combined — Austin alone now approaches double that total.

A similar acceleration has emerged in other Texas cities. Approximately 30 driverless Teslas were reported put into operation in Dallas and Houston over the past week alone.

Part of the sudden increase is attributable to a data correction. McCanna, who interned with Tesla's Robotaxi team earlier this year, said the site's earlier metrics suffered from delays. The tracker relies primarily on trip data automatically recorded by app users, supplemented by other crowd-sourced and public information. After adjusting its data sources, McCanna found the actual number of unsupervised vehicles on the road exceeded prior estimates.

The underlying fleet change in Austin also appears real. "Austin seems to have stopped offering supervised service for several consecutive weeks," McCanna said. "Vehicles previously flagged as operating with a safety driver have now been confirmed as providing unsupervised trips."

User reports on Reddit and X have corroborated the trend, with some Austin-based Robotaxi riders noting the absence of safety drivers in recent trips.

Tesla does not publish detailed Robotaxi fleet figures and rarely comments on media inquiries, making the Robotaxi Tracker one of the few available windows into the company's operational status. Current Robotaxi service in Austin relies mainly on modified Model Y vehicles.

The fleet expansion comes as Tesla prepares to launch its dedicated Cybercab in Austin as early as this month. Unlike the Model Y-based service, the Cybercab was engineered specifically for autonomous ride-hailing and lacks a steering wheel and pedals entirely.

As the unsupervised fleet scales, Tesla is simultaneously hiring AI safety operators in Chile and Colombia, signaling continued efforts to support overseas Robotaxi expansion.