Tesla's driverless ride-hailing service began picking up passengers in Fort Worth at 6 a.m. Monday, making the city the company's fourth Texas market after Austin, Dallas and Houston.
The start time was announced on the company's Robotaxi account on X. The Fort Worth Report counted Fort Worth as the seventh city with the service, which also runs in Miami, Orlando and Tampa.
Where the cars go
Not a Tesla App, a site that tracks the company's software and service changes, measured the Fort Worth zone at roughly 143 square miles, making it Tesla's third-largest area for rides with no employee in the vehicle, behind Austin at 272 square miles and Houston at 254.
Its reading of the service map puts the edges at White Settlement on the west, Benbrook on the south and Saginaw on the north, with the eastern boundary running alongside Haltom City and Forest Hill.
The Austin American-Statesman reported that the zone takes in Texas Christian University and follows a jagged line along Interstate 820 toward Saginaw, and that rides are offered from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. The Fort Worth Report noted thinner coverage on the east side, where service mostly stops between I-35W and about Riverside Drive south of Interstate 30.
Riders book through the Robotaxi app for iPhone or Android, and existing Tesla account holders can sign in with those credentials. A Fort Worth Report reporter who took a test ride from the Near Southside to downtown said the trip took about 15 minutes, though the app first showed the ride as canceled and then charged the card $8.98 three times for the single trip.
Questions about safety
The expansion comes while federal regulators look into parts of the service. The Statesman reported that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is evaluating a complaint alleging Tesla's automated driving system sped through school zones, and is also examining the data and process Tesla used to certify that its purpose-built Cybercab meets federal vehicle safety standards.
In federal crash filings covering the four weeks that ended Sept. 15, Tesla reported eight crashes in Texas, three of them in Austin, none with serious injuries, according to the newspaper.
Chief Executive Elon Musk has predicted rapid growth. On the company's most recent earnings call he said Tesla would end up with a majority of passenger miles in any country where it is allowed to operate freely, the Statesman reported.
