Tesla’s robotaxi service is now live in select areas of Miami, marking the electric vehicle maker’s most significant expansion yet into autonomous ride-hailing. The launch on July 3 puts Tesla directly in competition with Alphabet’s Waymo, which has been operating its own paid driverless service in Miami since January 22.
The road to Miami was bumpier than expected
Tesla originally targeted seven US cities for robotaxi deployment during the first half of 2026. The ambitious list included Miami, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas.
That timeline didn’t survive contact with reality. By April, several cities on the roadmap, including Miami, were quietly downgraded to “preparations underway” status. The company had been running supervised autonomous operations in various Texas cities before attempting to expand eastward.
The plan for Miami was not small. Tesla reportedly aimed to deploy over 1,000 autonomous vehicles in the city using its Model Y fleet, with production of the purpose-built Cybercab scheduled to begin around April 2026. Whether those volume targets are being met with this initial rollout is a different question, given that the launch covers only limited areas of the city.
