Tesla’s robotaxi service in Texas gets a bruising review
Tesla’s robotaxi service in Texas still works like a very limited and uneven trial rather than a polished taxi network. In Dallas, a Reuters journalist spent almost two hours completing a journey that would normally take around 20 minutes, after a long wait for a car, a slow route and a drop off point well away from the intended destination.
A short trip turned into a two hour exercise
The Reuters journalist ordered a Tesla Robotaxi in Dallas from the Southern Methodist University area to City Hall. The journey would usually take about 20 minutes, but with Tesla’s service the whole process lasted nearly two hours.
It took 36 minutes to find a booking, another 19 minutes for the car to arrive and about 35 minutes to complete the ride itself. Uber, meanwhile, showed an eight minute wait for the same route.
The problem was not only the waiting. The robotaxi avoided the main motorway, took city streets instead and ended the trip in a car park, leaving the passenger with a walk of around 15 minutes to the destination. Tesla customer support told the journalist the service was still in beta.
The car struggled with a left turn
On another ride in Dallas, the robotaxi failed to make a left turn. The car repeatedly passed the junction, turned right, circled the block and returned to the same spot. It completed the turn only after the passenger explained the situation to an operator.
In Houston, a Reuters reporter managed to complete one ride, but the next booking was cancelled. After that, the app could not find another car for 30 minutes. In Austin, where Tesla’s robotaxi service already operated for nearly a year, Reuters tracking showed wait times often exceeded 15 minutes, while in 27 per cent of checks no car was available at all.
Tesla operates the service in three Texas cities
According to Tesla’s own support information, Robotaxi is currently available in limited areas of Austin, Dallas and Houston. The service runs from 6.00am to 2.00am Central Time, and the initial fleet consists of Model Y SUVs.
Tesla expanded the service to Dallas and Houston on 18 April 2026. The company announced the wider rollout, but did not disclose the fleet size or detailed pricing. Reuters noted that the taxi business sits at the centre of Tesla’s growth story, as Elon Musk increasingly ties the company’s future to artificial intelligence and autonomous driving.
The real issue is scale, not only convenience
Reuters’ test does not prove that Tesla’s idea failed on public roads. It does show that the service does not yet behave like a taxi product ready for the mass market.
Long waits, patchy availability, tight service areas and cautious routing all point in the same direction. As Tesla expands Robotaxi, it appears to be choosing safety over speed. Sensible enough, perhaps, but not yet the kind of future that arrives exactly when you order it.
