Tesla Robotaxi Expands To San Francisco–With Drivers Behind The Wheel

It’s more taxi than robotaxi, at least for now.

Tesla Robotaxi service launches in San Francisco with safety drivers

Photo by: InsideEVs

Iulian Dnistran

By: Iulian Dnistran

Jul 31, 2025 at 8:02am ET

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Tesla’s Robotaxi service is now live in the San Francisco area.
This is the second city where Tesla’s driverless Model Ys can now be hailed, after Austin, Texas.
That said, because Tesla doesn’t have all the necessary regulatory approvals in California, San Francisco Robotaxis have safety drivers behind the wheel.

Tesla has expanded its Robotaxi service to a second city today, opening its ride-hailing service to a limited part of San Francisco. The driverless taxis first went live in Austin, Texas, last month.

Just like in Austin, though, the service area in San Francisco is quite small, as shown in the official image posted earlier today by the automaker’s AI arm on its official X page. Furthermore, not everyone will be able to hail a Tesla Robotaxi in the Bay Area, as access is currently on an invite-only basis. Tesla owners, influencers and investors are among the first to get invites.

However, unlike Austin, where a safety monitor is sitting in the front passenger seat, San Francisco Robotaxis have a safety driver behind the steering wheel. This is due to Tesla not having all the regulatory approvals required by the state of California to offer paid driverless taxi rides.

Another difference between the two cities is the shape of the service area. In Austin, Tesla CEO Elon Musk joked about the phallic-shaped geofenced area, while San Francisco Robotaxis are constrained in a more nondescript area. Currently, Tesla is offering invite-only robotaxi rides in San Francisco, Berkeley, Hayward, Fremont and San Jose.

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Earlier this month, Musk said on his X account that the Robotaxi service would expand to the Bay Area “in a month or two” and that the wait time was dependent on getting regulatory approvals. Now, the service went live ahead of schedule, but without having all the paperwork in place.

While Tesla has a transportation charter permit from the California Public Utilities Commission, which allows it to transport people in a “non-autonomous vehicle” with a driver, it has yet to apply for the permits required to test and deploy driverless taxis in the state.