Elon Musk says Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) will roughly double the number of robotaxis operating in Austin next month, marking the latest step in the company’s push to scale up its self-driving service.
The fleet has been running in the city since June, although Tesla has never disclosed how many vehicles are involved.
The Austin service is one of only two robotaxi operations Tesla currently runs, the other being in the San Francisco Bay Area. Both still require human safety monitors in the cars.
The company also secured permission last week to begin offering a ride-hailing service in Arizona.
Musk has repeatedly set ambitious timelines for autonomous driving. In recent months, he has said he expects large areas of Austin to see fully driverless operation this year and predicted that Tesla robotaxis could be active in eight to ten metropolitan regions by the end of 2025.
He has also suggested that about half of the US population could have access to the service by year-end.
The broader robotaxi industry has endured years of setbacks, including regulatory hurdles, high development costs and federal investigations into safety.
But activity has rebounded, with Tesla, Alphabet’s Waymo and Amazon’s Zoox all accelerating their expansion plans.