Tesla expands driverless robotaxi service across Austin metro area

Tesla announced that its fully autonomous robotaxi fleet will now operate throughout the entire Austin metropolitan region in Texas. The expansion increases the service area to 11,080 km², covering a population of about 2.3 million people. The fleet, which already runs about 50 driverless vehicles, will move beyond the central part of the city to serve a broader area, although customers sometimes face wait times of over 30 minutes. Tesla’s robotaxi operation is still smaller than Waymo’s, which runs more than 250 vehicles in the same market.

Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla, SpaceX and other ventures, has an estimated net worth of roughly US$970 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. The wealth is largely tied to his holdings in Tesla and SpaceX, and Musk could become the world’s first trillion‑dollar individual if SpaceX’s pending IPO proceeds as expected.