Tesla takes Houston Robotaxi service into much of the 610 Loop
The rocket-shaped, 254-square-mile geofence reaches downtown and Bellaire but excludes both major airports.
Tesla expanded its Houston Robotaxi geofence on Oct. 26 from its original northwest Harris County base around Jersey Village into much of the 610 Loop, bringing central-city neighborhoods into the driverless ride service. The new rocket-shaped boundary reaches parts of Bellaire, the Heights, Montrose, Midtown, downtown and East Downtown, while the original Jersey Village zone remains within it.
The area now covers roughly 254 square miles and about 1.2 million residents, compared with an earlier zone variously estimated at about 20 to 25 square miles. It stretches from near Copperfield and Jersey Village through downtown and Bellaire, towards Missouri City in the southwest, but stops short of Pasadena and South Houston to the east. Part of the northeast Loop also remains outside the boundary.
Neither George Bush Intercontinental Airport nor William P. Hobby Airport is included. Tesla marked the expansion in a social-media post reading, “Houston, we have liftoff,” while Elon Musk described the rocket-like map as “just a coincidence.”
Houston Chronicle reported that Tesla launched the service in April in a small northwest Harris County area. The vehicles operate without a human driver or front-seat safety monitor, and the company’s Houston fleet had accumulated nearly 226,000 autonomous miles by mid-October, according to Not a Tesla App.
There is some uncertainty over the vehicles now available to riders. Houston Public Media reported that the service uses both Cybercabs and Model Ys, while Robotaxi Tracker, cited by Electrek, counted 34 driverless Model Ys in Houston and no Cybercabs. Drive Tesla Canada similarly reported that Tesla had tested Cybercabs in the city for months but had not yet put them into the active Robotaxi fleet.
The Cybercab has no steering wheel or pedals, unlike the Model Y. Based on the tracker’s fleet estimate and the enlarged geofence, Electrek calculated that Houston had roughly one vehicle for every 7.5 square miles, underlining that the mapped service area does not necessarily mean rides can be supplied efficiently across every street.
Tesla has said safety remains its main constraint on Robotaxi expansion and that it limits operations to lower-speed roads and less complex environments. The enlarged Houston zone is roughly five times the 49-square-mile Houston service area attributed to Waymo; Zoox is also testing in the city but was not offering public rides.