- Elon Musk said Tesla’s robotaxi fleet in Austin should roughly double by next month.
- Tesla fans have complained about long wait times and high demand, with one calling the service “essentially unusable.”
- Musk said last month that Tesla aims to have 500 robotaxis on the road in Austin by the end of the year.
Elon Musk says Tesla is hitting the accelerator on its robotaxi rollout in Austin.
The billionaire wrote in a post on X late on Tuesday that Tesla aims to “roughly double” the size of its robotaxi fleet in Austin next month, after some fans complained that soaring demand from new users had left the service almost unusable.
It comes as Tesla races to expand its robotaxi operations and meet Musk’s ambitious timelines.
The Tesla CEO told investors last month that he wants self-driving taxis on the road in eight to 10 US metro areas by the end of the year.
Tesla launched its robotaxi service in Austin in June and opened a ride-hailing operation in San Francisco a month later.
The company’s vehicles in Austin have human safety monitors in the passenger seat, while regulatory hurdles mean Tesla’s Bay Area service operates with drivers ready to take the wheel.
Speaking on the “All-In” podcast last month, Musk said that Tesla would aim to increase its robotaxi fleet size to 500 cars in Austin and 1,000 in the Bay Area by the end of the year.
Tesla has not disclosed how many robotaxis it has on the road in Austin right now. A community tracker run by Austin-based robotaxi watcher Ethan McKenna estimates that the company has around 29 distinct vehicles serving autonomous rides in the city.
Earlier this month, Tesla removed its waitlist for the robotaxi app and fully opened the service to the public. Since then, a number of Tesla fans have complained on X about increased wait times and shortages of available vehicles due to a deluge of new users.
Despite hitting speed bumps in Austin, Tesla is continuing its robotaxi expansion at pace. The company recently cleared key regulatory hurdles in Nevada and Arizona, and is going on a hiring spree as it races to meet Musk’s end-of-year deadline.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment, sent outside normal working hours.
