While Tesla has staked its near future on its fledgling robotaxi service, the automaker’s fleet might be a fraction of the size that CEO Elon Musk claimed it would be by the end of 2025. A Texas A&M engineering student used the robotaxi app’s API to log the fleet’s vehicles and create an online tracker. The data revealed that only 34 Model Y vehicles are in service in Austin, Texas. Musk previously claimed that there would be 500 robotaxis by the end of this year.
Tesla isn’t even halfway to its target when including the 128 vehicles with human drivers in the San Francisco Bay Area. To add salt to the wound, the robotaxi tracker also indicated that there might only be around five Model Y taxis available or in use at any time in Austin. This can’t be a lucrative endeavor if Tesla can’t operate more than a half-dozen robotaxis at once or there isn’t enough demand to warrant more cars. Ethan McKenna, the tracker’s 19-year-old creator, told Electrek:
This is speculative on my part, but it’s my best guess based on the little data we have and can collect. One person I talked to who scoped out the depot and recorded videos told me he believes there are 1-5 out at a time. The highly sporadic wait time shifts and my experience of consistently getting the same vehicle multiple times when I use the service in the data all corroborate that.
Tesla can’t keep up with its Robotaxi promises
Tesla’s robotaxi service hasn’t been smooth sailing since its launch in June. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation after robotaxis appeared to violate traffic laws on the first day of operation. Tesla would eventually report three crashes to the agency, all in September. Not to mention, all this happened while safety monitors were in the Tesla vehicle to prevent such incidents. The manufacturer is now testing truly driverless operations in Austin in the hope of meeting another Musk promise.
Tesla is seemingly doing anything it can to make its robotaxi service appear successful compared to its more established competitors. The automaker’s fleet is paltry compared to Waymo’s, which has at least 2,000 vehicles in service across four metropolitan areas. Let’s just hope that Musk doesn’t try and shut down the robotaxi tracker like @ElonJet. For those who don’t remember, the CEO was thrown into a frenzy by another 19-year-old who used publicly available flight-tracking data to post his private jet flights on Twitter. Musk tried to pay the teen $5,000 to shut down the account in 2022. However, Musk bought the social media platform and banned @ElonJet despite stating that he wouldn’t shutter the account.
