Tesla shares edged higher in pre-market trade on Wednesday after CEO Elon Musk announced that the company will double the size of its robotaxi fleet in Austin, Texas, in December.
“The Tesla Robotaxi fleet in Austin should roughly double next month,” Musk posted on X, though the company has not disclosed the current number of robotaxis operating in the city.
Tesla’s autonomous ride-hailing service is currently active in two regions — Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area — where human safety monitors are still required inside vehicles. The company also secured a permit last week to operate a ride-hailing service in Arizona, marking another step in its expansion.
Musk has previously said he expects robotaxis to run without safety drivers in large parts of Austin this year, and projected deployment across eight to ten U.S. metropolitan areas by year-end. In July, he added that Tesla aims for its robotaxi network to cover about half of the U.S. population by the end of 2025.
The robotaxi sector, once slowed by high operating costs, regulatory hurdles, and federal investigations, has seen renewed momentum. Tesla, Alphabet’s Waymo, and Amazon-owned Zoox are now rapidly scaling operations across major cities.
