Tesla Robotaxi Now Operates 24/7 in Eight Cities

Tesla’s Robotaxi service has eliminated its overnight pause. The company’s official Robotaxi account announced on X that rides are now available 24/7 in every city where the service operates.

The move spans all eight unsupervised markets: Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Fort Worth, Dallas, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa. Both Model Y robotaxis and Cybercabs are included, though Cybercab rides remain limited to Austin for now.

How Robotaxi Reached 24/7

Over recent months, Tesla extended operating hours in stages. The timeline:

August: Hours expanded to 6 a.m. through 10 p.m.
Early October: Service extended until 11 p.m. as the Austin Cybercab fleet grew.
Mid-October: Rides began running until midnight.
Late October: Closing time moved to 2 a.m., providing 20 hours of service per day.
Last week: Start time shifted to 5 a.m., for 21 hours a day.
This week: Robotaxi officially went 24/7 in every city.

That’s an increase from 16 hours of service in August to continuous, around-the-clock availability in about three months. Ahead of the change, enthusiasts reported seeing what appeared to be empty, unsupervised Cybercabs in Austin between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.

Nighttime Driving Was the Constraint

The phased rollout focused on improving nighttime performance. In early October, Musk said the main challenge was spotting and avoiding animals at night, describing it as detecting “grey kittens on grey tarmac in the dark.” Tesla added hours gradually while addressing this issue.

Software and Timing

Tesla originally planned to start running Robotaxis 24/7 in October alongside a fleet-wide rollout of FSD v15. Tesla’s VP of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, said v15 would enable round-the-clock operations, and early builds were already being tested on some Robotaxi vehicles. The timeline slipped by a few weeks, and Tesla hasn’t said whether v15 is now running across the entire fleet.

More Hours, More Cities

The expansion comes amid rapid growth of the service. Tesla launched in Fort Worth and San Antonio in back-to-back weeks, with San Antonio’s service area becoming its largest at launch, and it grew Austin’s service area by about 63% last week. With 24/7 service now active everywhere Robotaxi operates (except in the Bay Area, where rides are still supervised), Tesla is turning to launch additional cities and expand Cybercabs beyond Austin, starting with Dallas this month.