Tesla's Austin robotaxis reach full driverless operation ahead of Cybercab debut

Tesla's self-driving taxi service in Austin has now moved to completely autonomous operation, according to tracking data — a significant milestone as the company approaches the launch of its custom-built Cybercab.

The shift to full autonomy#

In the two weeks leading up to early 2025, all 170 rides taken in Austin's Tesla Robotaxi fleet involved no human safety monitors aboard the vehicles, according to Robotaxi Tracker, a crowdsourced monitoring site. Those trips covered 54 different vehicles across the city. The same independent tracker has also documented a sharp uptick in unsupervised operations spreading to other Texas markets, with roughly 30 driverless Teslas recorded in Dallas and Houston over a single week.

This represents a dramatic reversal from summer conditions, when the unsupervised fleet appeared to stagnate or decline. Robotaxi Tracker previously showed just 28 active vehicles operating without safety drivers across all of its monitored markets in Texas and Florida — meaning Austin's numbers alone have now nearly doubled the earlier total.

What's driving the expansion#

Part of the increase reflects improved data collection. Ethan McKanna, the site's creator who recently interned with Tesla's Robotaxi division, refined Robotaxi Tracker's data sources after discovering that earlier metrics had lagged behind reality. The platform pulls information primarily from app users automatically logging their trips, plus crowdsourced observations and public records.

Yet the Austin transition itself appears genuine. "Austin has seemingly stopped supervised rides for a couple weeks now," McKanna explained to The Verge. "Plates previously marked as supervised have been confirmed to be offering unsupervised rides." His observations align with recent anecdotal reports from Austin residents posting on social platforms like Reddit and X.

The Cybercab connection#

The timing matters because Tesla plans to debut its purpose-built Cybercab — designed without steering wheels or traditional pedals — in Austin potentially within weeks. Removing human controls from the vehicle makes the ability to operate reliably without onboard monitors essential to the product's viability.

During its latest earnings presentation, CEO Elon Musk projected the Robotaxi program would expand "very, very rapidly," though he declined to offer specific targets for vehicle numbers or new cities, a departure from his historically optimistic forecasts that often fail to materialize.