Tesla was granted on Friday a licence in Texas to legally operate its ride-hailing service in the state, as initially reported by Bloomberg.
The Texas’ Department of Licencing and Regulation listed Tesla Robotaxi, LLC on Friday as licensed transportation network company on its website.
The company is now expected to deploy the ride-hailing service in Texas — joining Lyft and Uber — before launching its robotaxi service there pending regulatory approvals.
The registration follows a new state law, effective September 1, that brings rideshare services using autonomous vehicles under the same regulatory framework as those operated by human drivers, as initially reported by the X user and Tesla shareholder Sawyer Merritt.
The permit comes a month after the fully driverless, paid service was launched in Austin, the state capital.
On Thursday, Tesla was spotted doing validation testing of its robotaxi in Georgetown, about 30 miles north of Austin.
The news also come a day after the federal Department of Transportation and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) revealed that they contacted Tesla earlier last month requesting a drive on the company’s robotaxi service in Austin.
The safety regulator did not disclose whether its request was approved but confirmed that Tesla responded with the requested information on Wednesday — which was treated as confidential.
Since late June, the company has expanded the geofenced area of its robotaxi service in Austin and introduced a dynamic pricing system based on distance, replacing the fixed fare structure.
The service was introduced late last month in the Bay Area, California, where autonomous driving faces stricter local regulations.
However, every ride includes a safety monitor in the driver seat — which makes it similar to other ride-hailing services where the driver owns a Tesla and uses the Full Self-Driving feature.
As it advances towards releasing its Unsupervised FSD in the US, the company is still “awaiting regulatory approval” across Europe.
In mid-July, Tesla confirmed that the FSD will be rolled out in Australia and New Zealand.
On Thursday, the company posted a video on X, showing that it is now testing the system in Auckland, New Zealand — another right-hand market, following tests in the UK revealed last month.
According to Musk, the FSD will have a “step change improvement” as the company prepares to publicly release its robotaxi service.
The CEO reiterated it on early Friday, adding that the update will “substantially reduce the need for driver attention,” but it will not remove the safety drivers from the vehicles yet, as “some complex intersections, heavy weather or unusual events will still require attention.”
“Note, the Austin robotaxi FSD build is ~6 months more advanced than what is available in cars in America and there are some additional breakthroughs in Tesla AI that will make the car feel eerily human,” Musk added.
