Tesla has widened the footprint of its fledgling autonomous ride-hailing business, moving beyond the pilot it began in Austin, Texas, on 22 June. The company initially deployed about a dozen self-driving Model Y vehicles that carry paying passengers for a flat $4.20, with a safety operator in the front passenger seat. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said the service—run through a dedicated Robotaxi app—would be “super-paranoid” on safety and operate only within a geofenced area and in fair weather. A new Texas law that will require permits for driverless fleets takes effect on 1 September, but Tesla can currently run under existing rules. Musk signalled on 10 July that the Austin service would cover a larger portion of the city over the following weekend, and local mapping data show the geofence has since been extended well beyond the original South Congress corridor. Tesla has also begun adding more Model Y vehicles to the Austin fleet as it gathers performance data and prepares for wider commercial deployment. Late on 31 July the company quietly switched on Robotaxi rides across California’s San Francisco Bay Area, creating a service zone that stretches roughly 75 miles from north of the Golden Gate Bridge to south of San Jose. The launch pits Tesla directly against Alphabet’s Waymo, which already operates driverless cars in the region. Side-by-side geofence comparisons posted by users suggest Tesla’s coverage is significantly larger, setting the stage for direct fare and performance competition in two U.S. tech hubs.