Online Drivers on the Verge of Extinction, Signalling Acceleration in America
The presence of driverless robotaxis is increasingly widespread in the United States. Not only Waymo, owned by Alphabet, which is already available in many states, but Elon Musk’s Tesla is also expanding its robotaxi service to Dallas and Houston.
“Robotaxi is now launched in Dallas & Houston,” the company posted, quoted from Tech Crunch, on Monday (20/4/2026).
The existence of robotaxis, which do not require a driver to operate the vehicle, has developed rapidly in the US, China, and the United Arab Emirates. Robotaxis will also expand to Singapore through a partnership between Grab and WeRide.
The emergence of robotaxis inevitably threatens the existence of online drivers. This concern has already been raised in China some time ago.
In Tesla’s post, a 14-second video is included showing a car without a supervisor or human driver in the front seat.
Last year, Tesla launched a similar service in Austin and began offering driverless rides from the beginning of this year. Thus, robotaxis can now be found in three Texas cities.
Tesla has also been operating in the San Francisco Bay Area. However, its service is still limited with human drivers to date.
The streets of the US have indeed been adorned with robotaxis. Alphabet’s Waymo (Google) is also undertaking a major expansion of the service.
Several cities that already have Waymo services include Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. The company also partnered with Uber to open the service in Austin last year.
Several other players are also trying their luck in the US. Amazon’s Zoox, Waabi, and Nuro are reported to be planning to launch commercial robotaxi services in the country.
Although the service launch has been massive, the US still faces numerous accidents from robotaxi providers. For example, Tesla has been involved in 14 accidents since its launch in Austin.
The US traffic safety authority has also opened an investigation into the incident involving a Waymo autonomous vehicle that hit a child in Santa Monica, California. The victim sustained minor injuries from the incident.