Tesla has stretched its Robotaxi service in Austin in two ways right before one of the city’s busiest weekends: the service area now reaches Circuit of the Americas (COTA), and riders can request trips until 1 AM.
What changed
The update showed up in the Robotaxi app late on October 22 and was shared on X by Sawyer Merritt and David Moss. The geofence map now wraps around the racetrack southeast of downtown. A banner in the app reads “Last call is 1am ยท Limited to nearby dropoffs,” which suggests the latest rides are kept to shorter trips. The new cutoff is an hour later than the midnight limit that had only been in place since October 17; before that, rides ended at 11 PM. This was reported from the app and social posts rather than a formal Tesla announcement.
TeslaNorth noted that searching for COTA venues in the app showed some of them under a “Service blocked” label, so it isn’t yet clear how pickups and drop-offs will work right at the track once race crowds arrive.
The F1 timing
The Formula 1 United States Grand Prix runs October 22 to 25 at COTA, with practice on Friday, qualifying Saturday and the race Sunday at 3 PM CT. Organizers expect around 400,000 people across the weekend, which makes it a high-profile test for a driverless fleet.
Context
On Tesla’s Q3 earnings call, Ashok Elluswamy said Robotaxi would soon run until 2 AM, with 24/7 operation, higher-speed roads and highways targeted by the end of this year. Model Y Robotaxis also operate in Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando and Tampa, while the Cybercab is currently only in Austin and is set to reach Dallas next.
Sources: Drive Tesla Canada and TeslaNorth.