Look out, Waymo.
By
Shannon Connellan
Senior Editor
Shannon Connellan is Mashable's Senior Editor, General Assignments, based in London. She has been Mashable's UK Editor (and still manages the illustrious UK team) and Australia Editor, but emotionally, she lives searching for Exit 8. A Tomatometer-approved critic, Shannon writes about entertainment, tech, social good, science, culture, and Australian horror, and loves to nerd out with movie stars, filmmakers, and TV creators.
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A safety monitor rides in a Tesla Robotaxi on South First Street in Austin on Jan. 21, 2026. Credit: Jay Janner / The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images
Tesla's Robotaxis will hit the streets in two more cities: Dallas and Houston.
Announced by the Elon Musk-owned company on X over the weekend, Tesla is rolling out its autonomous rideshare vehicles in additional Texas locations, after launching in Austin in June 2025.
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Tesla also shared maps of where Robotaxis will be available in Houston and Dallas, which are much less initially penis-shaped maps than its Austin release. In Houston, Robotaxis will be available in the northwest around Jersey Village and Willowbrook; in Dallas, the service will cover a central/north area around Highland Park.
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The service, which has come with its fair share of teething issues, lets passengers be chauffeured around town by autonomous Tesla Model Y cars. In the video shared by Tesla on Saturday (above), there is no human driver or safety monitor in the passenger seat — exactly how "unsupervised" the Robotaxi rides technically are has made a few headlines about remote human oversight.
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"We began testing driverless Robotaxis in Austin in December and began removing the safety monitor from customer rides in January on a limited basis, which will unlock further expansion of our Robotaxi fleet and coverage area in the Austin-metro," reads Tesla's Q4 earnings deck from Jan. 2025. Tesla has also been testing Robotaxi pickups from San José Mineta International Airport in the San Francisco Bay Area, "with plans to expand to other major airports in the Bay Area upon receiving required permitting."
Tesla's main competitor, Waymo, already operates for select riders in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio in Texas, as well as being open to the general public in Austin and major U.S. cities including Nashville, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, and most recently, Miami and Orlando — though it hasn't been a smooth rollout by any means.
In 2026, following a $16 billion financing round, Waymo is eyeing the likes of over 20 more cities including New York, Chicago, Charlotte, and many more; beyond the U.S., London and Tokyo are up next.
Uber, meanwhile, also has its sights set on Dallas, recently committing $10 billion to robotaxis in at least 28 cities by 2028.
Senior Editor
Shannon Connellan is Mashable's Senior Editor, General Assignments, based in London. She has been Mashable's UK Editor (and still manages the illustrious UK team) and Australia Editor, but emotionally, she lives searching for Exit 8. A Tomatometer-approved critic, Shannon writes about entertainment, tech, social good, science, culture, and Australian horror, and loves to nerd out with movie stars, filmmakers, and TV creators.
