One year ago, Tesla put passengers into specially equipped Model Y crossovers on the streets of Austin and quietly started one of the most ambitious bets in the company’s history.
The first Robotaxi rides began on June 22, 2025. Twelve months later, that small invite-only pilot has grown into a commercial network running across multiple Texas cities.
The anniversary landed with Tesla fans who have followed every update since day one.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the first @Tesla robotaxi rides starting. Wild to think that it's already been a year. And now Tesla's Austin fleet is Unsupervised.
One of the first public nighttime rides last year: pic.twitter.com/SjT3vwntW8
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 22, 2026
Not a Tesla App published a year-one recap pegged to the June 22, 2025 Austin launch, and the useful part is the timeline. The service did not start as a normal public ride-hailing rollout.
The recap describes a small fleet of specially equipped Model Y crossovers, a strict invite-only start, and a golden-ticket app flow where many would-be riders could not even download the Robotaxi app at first. Tesla then widened access by sending more invitations and using early rider feedback to improve the app and trip experience.
That same recap follows the service through the first-year upgrades that make the anniversary feel bigger than a birthday post. It points to walking directions, mid-trip destination editing, night rides, a broader Austin geofence, Dallas and Houston expansion, and the longer-term shift toward Cybercab scale.
The Android side of the story is its own milestone.
Electrek reported that the Robotaxi app arrived on Android on April 24, 2026, ending nearly a year of iOS exclusivity. The timing mattered because it came just days after Tesla expanded the service from Austin to Dallas and Houston.
The report described the rider flow in practical terms. A rider can request a car, see the approaching vehicle’s license plate, then adjust climate, seating, and music after getting in.
Electrek also noted that riders can monitor trip progress, change the drop-off point, or ask the car to pull over, with Google Pay added on Android. It put the Dallas pricing it had seen at a $3.00 base fare plus $1.40 per mile, while Austin pricing was described as $3.25 plus $1.00 per mile at that point.
That Texas expansion in April was the most aggressive move of the year.
EV reported that Tesla rolled out Robotaxi rides in Dallas and Houston in April, marking the first expansion of the program beyond Austin and the Bay Area. The report said the official Robotaxi account posted service-area maps with the announcement.
The follow-up detail was the part Tesla fans seized on. EV noted that the account posted “All by myself” shortly afterward, while Elon Musk amplified the launch by telling people to try Tesla Robotaxi in Dallas and Houston.
EV also made clear what Tesla had not disclosed in that announcement. The company did not provide fleet size, detailed pricing, or complete monitor-status information at launch, and the report placed Dallas and Houston inside the broader expansion plan Tesla had outlined earlier in 2026.
Tesla Robotaxi launched one year ago today!
The ride-hailing service is expected to scale significantly in the coming weeks and months as Cybercabs are added to the fleet. https://t.co/zll87GgZZE pic.twitter.com/wb97Iu8vtl
— The Tesla Newswire (@TeslaNewswire) June 22, 2026
The next chapter is the one Tesla fans have been waiting on, with the purpose-built Cybercab positioned as the scale platform beyond retrofitted Model Y crossovers.
A year ago this was a beta test that plenty of critics dismissed. Today it is empty driver’s seats picking up real passengers in Texas, and the roadmap points up.
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