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Tesla expands ‘Robotaxi’ to entire Austin metro — but still has only ~20 vehicles

3 June 2026 at 18:14

Tesla announced today that its unsupervised “Robotaxi” service now covers the entire Austin metro area, a significant expansion of its geofenced operating zone.

It’s a notable milestone on paper, but the actual fleet serving this massive area remains tiny — just ~20 active unsupervised vehicles, according to the latest data, a number that has actually been shrinking.

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Elon facing backlash over Tesla SpaceX merger talks, but solar actually isn’t

29 May 2026 at 00:53

On today’s exciting episode of Quick Charge, we’re exploring the industry’s backlash – real or imagined – towards Elon Musk’s SpaceX merger talks, Full Self Driving’s staff revolt, and even large, utility scale solar projects. All this and more when you hit that play button!

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Waymo starts offering rides in new Ojai robotaxi with 6th-gen Driver

28 May 2026 at 16:00

Waymo is beginning to offer select riders trips in its new purpose-built Ojai robotaxi, debuting the company’s 6th-generation Driver hardware across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Trips will be free for a limited time.

The Ojai represents a significant step for Waymo, which has now surpassed 20 million fully autonomous trips across 11 cities — a scale that no competitor comes close to matching.

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Tesla ‘Robotaxi’ fleet is actually shrinking, not growing, new data shows

26 May 2026 at 22:04

Less than a month after we reported that Tesla’s unsupervised “Robotaxi” fleet was finally showing some signs of growth, new data from the Robotaxi Tracker tells a different story. The fleet is actually shrinking.

The number of active unsupervised Tesla “Robotaxis” has dropped to just 20 vehicles — down from the 25 cumulative vehicles we reported in late April — and the total active fleet across all Tesla ride-hailing operations has collapsed to just 34 vehicles.

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People are leaving a lot of weird stuff in their robotaxis

2 June 2026 at 13:00
Waymo autonomous vehicle

A unicorn Beanie Baby. A 15-pound green bowling ball. A pair of dentures.

These are just some of the items left behind in robotaxis in the past year, according to Uber's annual Lost and Found Index. For the first time, the company is expanding its annual of accounting of things forgotten in Uber vehicles to include self-driving cars because, for the first time, Uber has enough self-driving cars on its platform to matter.

Uber doesn't deploy its own robotaxis, but in the last few years it's become a clearinghouse for driverless car companies that want access to Uber's millions of customers. Here in the US, that includes Waymo (in Austin a …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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