Tesla Robotaxis now driverless in Austin, but not incident-free

Tesla Robotaxis are now operating without human drivers in Austin. This shift, confirmed by crowdsourced data, comes just days before the Cybercab launch, the autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals.

A 100% autonomous fleet, at last

Over the past two weeks, the 170 Tesla Robotaxi trips tracked in Austin by the Robotaxi Tracker app were all driverless. These 170 rides involved 54 distinct vehicles. Ethan McKanna, the tool’s creator, notes that license plates previously linked to supervised trips are now detected in autonomous mode. This shift was confirmed by users on social media, including an August 18 tweet reporting the 94th unsupervised Robotaxi license plate in the city.

This transition to full autonomy contrasts with the situation this summer: in early August, Robotaxi Tracker only recorded 28 unsupervised vehicles across six markets in Texas and Florida. McKanna, who spent the summer interning at Tesla, explains that some data on his site was delayed. After reviewing sources — primarily automatic user logs and public information — the actual number of autonomous vehicles proved higher.

A context shaped by the Cybercab and delays

This acceleration comes ahead of the Cybercab launch, scheduled for this August in Austin. This vehicle, designed without a steering wheel or pedals, will rely on the same software as current Model Ys. Tesla has told employees that an initial wave of Cybercabs will be deployed in the city, with a select group of lucky passengers invited to a launch event.

Elon Musk announced in January 2026 that Austin’s Robotaxis were already operating without safety drivers. He had then promised full deployment by the end of 2025. The delay is partly due to revelations earlier this year: some trips presented as autonomous were actually remotely controlled by human operators.

Incidents highlight the system’s limits

On August 18, a video shows a driverless Tesla Robotaxi forcing its way through a closed lane in Austin, knocking over plastic barriers. The vehicle, a Model Y, entered a sidewalk extension off-limits to traffic, marked by flexible posts visible on Google Street View since February 2024. After a minute of hesitation, it chose to hit them to continue its route.

The incident occurred less than a month after Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s AI vice president, claimed a “flawless safety record” for the Robotaxi program, with 610,000 km (380,000 miles per Electrek) driven without notable incidents. Yet Tesla has already reported 22 incidents linked to its automated driving systems to the NHTSA (the US road safety authority).

Unlike Waymo, which uses high-definition maps, Tesla relies on real-time environmental interpretation. In this case, the software detected the barriers, stopped, then decided to drive through them. A choice that raises questions about handling fixed obstacles, especially if they had been concrete or placed in front of a construction zone.

Tesla lags behind Waymo, but is moving forward

With 54 autonomous vehicles in Austin, Tesla remains far behind Waymo, which operates over 300 driverless vehicles in the same city and 4,000 in a dozen others. The 380,000 miles (610,000 km) driven in unsupervised mode by Tesla since January 2026 represent less than 0.2% of Waymo’s 220 million miles.

Additionally, Tesla may be intentionally limiting the addition of Model Ys to its Robotaxi fleet, according to a JPMorgan note, in anticipation of the Cybercab rollout. This strategy could explain the stagnation, or even reduction, in the number of autonomous vehicles observed in spring 2026.

While the full autonomy of Tesla Robotaxis in Austin marks a milestone, recent incidents remind us that the technology remains imperfect. The imminent Cybercab launch, devoid of any manual controls, will put this maturity to the test.