Tesla Robotaxi San Antonio launch: about 272 sq mi zone vs Waymo's airport service
Updates
- Added Robotaxi Tracker's Nov. 9 report that Tesla's Austin service area expanded to about 442 sq mi (unconfirmed by Tesla), and removed the line saying San Antonio's zone was roughly Austin's size.
Tesla's official Robotaxi account on X posted at 12:27 a.m. Central time on Monday, Nov. 9, that Robotaxi is "available in San Antonio starting tomorrow, 5am," with a launch map. Tesla watchers, including Sawyer Merritt, read that as rides from 5 a.m. Monday. On Oct. 21, Tesla named San Antonio among its next Robotaxi cities, with no date, the tracker Robotaxi Atlas reported.
Source: @robotaxi (Tesla Robotaxi, official) on X
Tesla hasn't given the zone's size. Robotaxi Tracker, a community-run data site, puts it at about 272 square miles, about 4.6 times Waymo's San Antonio zone, and covering roughly 1 million residents. Merritt's estimate is about 275 square miles. Neither figure is Tesla's. Hours after launch, early Monday, Robotaxi Tracker said Tesla's Austin service area grew by 170 square miles to about 442, which would make Austin's zone well over half again as big as San Antonio's. That is also a tracker figure; Tesla hasn't confirmed it.
Waymo got there first. It opened San Antonio to all riders on Oct. 14, including San Antonio International Airport, after a service pause that followed an April flood incident. Waymo's San Antonio rides stay off freeways, per Robotaxi Atlas, and Tesla's post doesn't say whether its zone includes the airport. It also doesn't say whether San Antonio cars run with no one in the front seat, or how many cars will run there.
Why San Antonio matters
San Antonio is a head-to-head test: Waymo has been open to every rider there since Oct. 14 and serves the airport. Waymo's San Antonio fares run a $3 base plus $2.25 a mile, per RideWise figures cited by CultureMap, while Robotaxi Tracker logs a $12.88 median Tesla ride in Austin over the last 90 days. If the trackers' size estimates hold, Tesla's map is several times bigger; Waymo has the airport.
More on Tesla, Waymo and robotaxis and self-driving vehicles.
The source post
Post by Tesla Robotaxi on X.
View the post on X
Sources
- @robotaxi (Tesla Robotaxi, official) on X
- Robotaxi Tracker on X: San Antonio launch-area estimate
- Sawyer Merritt on X: launch time and geofence estimates
- Waymo Help: open to everyone in San Antonio (Oct. 14)
- San Antonio Express-News: Waymo's San Antonio expansion
- CultureMap San Antonio: Waymo scraps waitlist (fares)
- Robotaxi Atlas: robotaxis in San Antonio (tracker)
- Robotaxi Tracker: Tesla fleet and Austin fares
- Robotaxi Tracker on X: Austin service area expansion
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Summarized by Servospace from the sources above, drafted with AI help and checked against those sources before publishing. Claims are the companies' or outlets' unless we say otherwise. How we work.