Tesla is joining the Miami robotaxi challenge. The Magic City is one of the five new US cities the ride-hailing service has identified for its next launches.
Tesla has already launched its robotaxi service in Austin in late June and San Francisco shortly after. CEO Elon Musk said in October that Tesla planned to expand to eight to 10 metro areas by the end of 2025, with a total of more than 1,000 vehicles, but in its annual shareholder meeting last week, the company said Miami, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas and Houston will be next.
Tesla said the new cities would be launching in coming months but gave no exact timetable.
No doubt, Miami’s relentless traffic will test the robotaxi service. Regulations around the country vary, but Florida currently requires a safety driver aboard.
Turns out Musk’s pay package of up to $1 trillion was not the only news at the shareholder meeting last week. Along with the announcement Miami will be one of five upcoming launch cities for robotaxis, Tesla also said will begin producing the Cybercab, its two-person autonomous electric vehicle, in April at its Austin factory. “We’ve got the first car that is specifically built for unsupervised, full self-driving to be a robotaxi called a Cybercab. It doesn’t even have pedals or steering wheel,” Musk said.
Musk also said that ride-share drivers with Tesla EVs and other owners will be able to add their vehicles to the Robotaxi fleet, allowing their vehicles to make money without them, but offered no other details. He hinted at a new feature coming that will let vehicle owners text while their vehicle drives autonomously.
To be sure, Tesla has some catching up to do. Waymo, leading the pack in this robotaxi challenge, already operates its service in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin and Atlanta, and the Alphabet-owned service has started limited testing and announced plans to roll out in Miami in 2026. While Tesla’s ride-hailing service completed over 40,000 rides in California since July, Waymo recorded over 700,000 rides in March alone, Business Insider reported.
What’s more, Robotaxi startup Argo AI has said it was the first to launch operations in the Magic City, and Amazon’s Zoox has also started testing its service here.
Autonomous shuttles are already operating in shuttles around the Sunshine State. They include self-driving shuttles in West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Orlando, Altamonte Springs and Tampa that have all started services or are in testing. And this summer, Jacksonville announced the launch of what it says is the nation’s first self-driving transit system.
