Report: Tesla Adds San Antonio to Robotaxi Service Expansion
Key Facts
Tesla included San Antonio among the cities its robotaxi service would reach, according to a report published by the San Antonio Express-News on October 27. The company had not announced when the service would begin or which area of the city it would cover, making the listing a signal of a planned expansion without a set operating schedule at the time. San Antonio would be a potential addition to Tesla’s network in Texas, where the company’s vehicles were carrying passengers in other cities. The newspaper said the company had not specified when residents would be able to request rides. It also provided no details about the service’s potential coverage area in the city.
Tesla’s service was carrying passengers in 6 cities in Texas and Florida, according to the same report. The list included Austin, Dallas and Houston in Texas, along with Miami, Orlando and Tampa in Florida. If operations begin there, San Antonio would add another market to the company’s existing operations in the two states. The report said the city was one of 4 that Tesla had named as “coming soon” for the service. It did not disclose a launch date for any of the four cities.
In San Antonio, Tesla was preparing two vehicle-charging stations, the newspaper reported on October 27. One is on Huebner Road near San Antonio International Airport, while the other is on Josephine Street near the Pearl district. The sites offer an indication of operational preparations involving the vehicles, but do not by themselves establish a service launch date or the area it would cover. The report did not say how many vehicles would operate in the city. It also provided no details about routes or operating hours.
Tesla uses the name “Robotaxi” for its business and vehicles, which include Cybercab cars and Model Y vehicles designated for the service, according to the report. The company says its fleet consists of Model Y vehicles and Cybercabs, and that the vehicle assigned to a passenger initially depends on availability and group size. The inclusion of Cybercab in the company’s fleet therefore does not establish that the San Antonio service would rely exclusively on that model. Tesla also says passengers request rides through its app, which displays the service area, estimated fare and wait time before the request is confirmed. The company prohibits passengers from sitting in the front-left seat, which is usually the driver’s seat.
Tesla presents Robotaxi safety results for the period from January 22 to October 18, 2026, including data on miles driven and crashes. The company says the report excludes miles driven with a safety monitor inside the vehicle. The published description does not specify the service’s performance or operating outlook in San Antonio. In a Pew Research Center survey conducted in February, 7 in 10 U.S. adults said they were not very comfortable or not at all comfortable riding in a driverless car, the Associated Press reported in September. The finding provides context on public acceptance of autonomous driving, while the published report did not include local details on San Antonio residents’ views.
Tesla says operating hours vary by service area, and that the app displays an estimate for the ride before the passenger confirms the request. For San Antonio, the published report did not specify a launch date or coverage area, and gave no subsequent timeline. The two charging stations being prepared in October remain among the main details of local preparations cited in the report. It did not give a figure for the planned fleet size in the city. Nor did it specify when further service details would be announced.