Musk says Tesla's robotaxis will be widespread in the U.S. by the end of this year

by · CNBC

Key Points

  • Tesla CEO Elon Musk said at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the company's robotaxis will be "widespread" in the U.S. by the end of 2026.
  • Tesla robotaxis launched in Austin, Texas, in 2025 after years of promises from Musk that the company was on the verge of producing driverless cars.
  • Tesla is operating in an increasingly competitive driverless vehicle market dominated by Alphabet-backed Waymo.

In this article

Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Thursday that his company will have a "widespread" network of driverless robotaxis in the U.S. by the end of 2026.

"Tesla's rolled out robotaxi service in a few cities, and will be very, very widespread by the end of this year within the U.S.," he said during an appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Tesla robotaxis finally hit the road in Austin, Texas, in June with human safety supervisors on board, after years of Tesla pushing back promises to deliver fully driverless cars.

The company later launched a ride-share in San Francisco with cars driven by humans.

In July, Musk said he believed that Tesla would have "autonomous ride hailing in probably half the population of the U.S. by the end of the year."  That didn't happen.

In October 2025, Musk proclaimed that Tesla should have "500 Robotaxis" in Austin by the end of the year. In November, he revised the number down to about 60.

The company has not obtained permits to test or run its vehicles on public roads in California without humans at the wheel.

Musk said in a post on his social media platform X Thursday that robotaxi rides in Austin were now operating "with no safety monitor."

Read more CNBC tech news

Musk also shared a post from Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla VP of AI software, who said the rollout would start with "a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader robotaxi fleet with safety monitors, and the ratio will increase over time."

In 2019, Musk told investors that he was "very confident" the company could roll out the vehicles by 2020.

Tesla is operating in an increasingly competitive driverless vehicle market, dominated by Alphabet-backed Waymo in the West, and Baidu's ApolloGo in China. Amazon-owned Zoox also entered the space, in 2025. Waymo ended the year in five U.S. markets and launched service in Miami on Thursday.

Tesla and other robotaxi businesses in the U.S. face an uphill battle when it comes to winning over potential riders.

Surveys by the Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report found U.S. consumers were very skeptical of robotaxis, with particular concerns around safety.

Late last year, California regulators found that Tesla had engaged in deceptive marketing and false advertising around their vehicles' driverless capabilities.

Tesla did not respond Thursday to requests for comment or further information about their robotaxi ride-hailing service.

It was Musk's first attendance at the annual gathering of world leaders in years. The tech billionaire previously mocked the forum on social media, calling it "boring af."

During his conversation with Blackrock CEO Larry Fink, Musk also said Tesla would be selling its Optimus robots to the public by the end of 2027.

"I don't know what's going to happen in 10 years, but the rate at which AI is progressing, I think we might have AI that is smarter than any human by the end of this year, and I'd say no later than next year," Musk said.

WATCH: The year that the robotaxi went mainstream, with Waymo leading the pack