Tesla began offering public robotaxi rides without safety operators in Austin on Thursday, marking a major step toward one of the company’s 2026 main goals: the widespread deployment of Cybercab vehicles across the US.
The information was first shared by X user “Tsla99T,” who posted a video from the back seat of a Model Y showing no occupants in the front, and later confirmed by CEO Elon Musk on the same platform.
The service, however, is limited to a portion of the fleet and is supervised by accompanying chase vehicles.
On an X post, Tesla‘s VP of AI Software Ashok Elluswamy clarified that while Robotaxi rides “without any safety monitors are now publicly available in Austin,” they are “starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader robotaxi fleet with safety monitors.”
According to the VP, “the ratio will increase over time.”
Additionally, there is a “chase car” following the driverless vehicles, as pointed out by several users on X.
These vehicles are seen in a video posted by Joe Tegtmeyer, where the Tesla enthusiast documented his first Robotaxi ride in a vehicle with no safety monitors.
Even before the ride began, Tegtmeyer highlighted that “behind the Model Y [Robotaxi] is that chase car, and I think they’re using that for validation.”
Safety Requirements
Tesla‘s timeline for Robotaxi deployment hinges particularly on safety, something that the company’s CEO has reaffirmed several times over the past few months.
Last September, Musk wrote on X that “the safety driver is just there for the first few months to be extra safe. Should be no safety driver by end of year.”
In Tesla‘s latest earnings call in October, he stated that “within a few months we expect to have no safety drivers at all, at least in parts of Austin,” he said, calling that milestone “perhaps the most important data point.”
By then, the chief executive acknowledged that “obviously we’re being very cautious about the deployment, because even one accident will be front-page headline news worldwide.”
Musk reiterated his promise to remove safety drivers by the end of 2025 in Austin. Late last month, the company offered the first driverless rides to employees.
A week before, he had confirmed that testing was “underway with no occupants in the car,” after several Model Ys were seen driving completely empty.
Stock Reaction
Tesla‘s shares jumped over 4% on Thursday’s trading session on the news, closing at $449.36.
The company’s stock hit a new all-time high of $498.83 on December 22, 2025, driven largely by autonomy-related news — most notably the first testings of driverless robotaxis.
Since that peak, the stock has declined by nearly 10%.
Just hours before the announcement, Elon Musk appeared at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he was interviewed by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.
BlackRock, which owns over $200 million shares of Tesla, is the company’s second-largest institutional shareholder.
During the interview, Musk stated that the “Robotaxi service will be very, very widespread by the end of this year within the US.”
The company expects Robotaxi deployment to accelerate significantly once production of the Cybercab begins in April. While initial output is expected to be limited, production is planned to ramp quickly.
Musk has said multiple times that the company ultimately aims to manufacture one Cybercab every 10 seconds, which would mark its fastest production rate ever, with a long-term goal of trimming it to five seconds.
Separately, on other autonomy-related developments, Musk also revealed in Davos that Tesla is nearing FSD approval in Europe and China, with the company targeting “next month.”
