Tesla Robotaxi has already surpassed Waymo in one extremely important key metric: size of service area.

Tesla just expanded its service area in Austin on Monday morning, pushing the boundaries of its Robotaxi fleet in an interesting fashion with new capabilities to the north. Yes, we know what it looks like:

🚨 Tesla’s new Robotaxi geofence is…

Finish the sentence 🥸 pic.twitter.com/3bjhMqsRm5

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 14, 2025

The expansion doubled Tesla Robotaxi’s potential travel locations, which now include the University of Texas at Austin, a school with over 53,000 students.

The doubling of the service area by Tesla has already made its travel area larger than Waymo’s, which launched driverless rides in October 2024. It became available to the public in March 2025.

According to Grok, the AI agent on X, Tesla Robotaxi’s current service area spans 42 square miles, which is five square miles larger than Waymo’s service area of 37 square miles.

Tesla Robotaxi (red) vs. Waymo geofence in Austin.

Much can be said about the shape… but the Robotaxi area is now ~3.9 mi² (10 km²) larger than Waymo’s!! pic.twitter.com/dVfh2ODxJC

— Robin (@xdNiBoR) July 14, 2025

The service area is one of the most important metrics in determining how much progress a self-driving ride-hailing service is making. Safety is the priority of any company operating a ride-hailing network, especially ones that are making it a point to use autonomy to deploy it.

However, these companies are essentially racing for a larger piece of the city or cities they are in. Waymo has expanded to several different regions around the United States, including Arizona and Los Angeles.

Tesla is attempting to do the same in the coming months as it has already filed paperwork in both California and Arizona to deploy its Robotaxi fleet in states across the U.S.

As the platform continues to show more prowess and accuracy in its operation, Tesla will begin to expand to new areas, eventually aiming for a global rollout of its self-driving service.

Tesla is rolling out its second update to its Robotaxi app after it launched the driverless ride-hailing service less than a month ago in Austin.

Among the changes, Tesla has expanded its service area, added walking directions to both the pickup and dropoff areas, added closing times for dropoff destinations, and allowed editing of your destination after booking a ride.

The new app version, Robotaxi 25.7.5, was rolled out on Monday morning. The biggest change is the near doubling of the service area, as Tesla expanded the possible travel region by a significant margin:

Tesla’s Robotaxi geofence in Austin grows, and its shape is hard to ignore

It’s no surprise Tesla decided to push the envelope with a new, interesting shape to the geofenced area that is hard to ignore.

The new region includes notable points of interest in Austin, most notably is the University of Texas at Austin. Tesla included the school, which has over 53,000 students, in this expansion, and it could be pushing the app and service to some of them in the coming weeks.

It’s a great addition as it is a highly concentrated area of the city, full of students and visitors.

Robotaxi app changes outside of new service area

Tesla has also added a handful of new changes. With its first update of the Robotaxi app, Tesla addressed several highly requested changes, including the ability to adjust the pickup location instead of being fixed to a default spot.

Walking Directions to Pickup and Destination

In congested and large metro areas, ride-sharing pickups are sometimes confusing to navigate to. When it comes to dropoff at your destination, exiting the vehicle at the front door is not always possible (many in Austin noticed this at Terry Black’s BBQ).

Tesla Robotaxi’s biggest challenge seems to be this one thing

Now, the app will guide you on how to reach your Robotaxi and your destination when pickup and dropoff are not available at the entrances of the establishments you’re visiting.

Search Results now show closing times

If you’re going to arrive at an establishment close to its closing time, the Robotaxi app will now warn you that you could arrive with only a few minutes to spare, or you could miss it altogether.

This is a nice touch because there’s nothing worse than craving some ice cream at 10 p.m., only to arrive and see the doors are locked and the lights are off.

Many navigation apps have this integrated to eliminate any confusion about closing times.

Destination editing after booking

This feature could go hand-in-hand with the closing times. As a business might close shortly after your arrival, you might find it advantageous to visit another establishment that has more time to serve you.

You can now pivot your destination after you have entered your Roobtaxi.

Tesla has rolled out an expanded geofence for its Robotaxi pilot program in Austin, Texas. With the expansion, the Robotaxi’s geofence now rivals Waymo’s service area, while staying true to Elon Musk’s rather lighthearted and juvenile humor at the same time.

New Robotaxi geofence expansion

Elon Musk actually announced the expansion of the Robotaxi service’s Austin geofence last week, with the CEO stating that the company is expanding its coverage in the city over the weekend. At the time, Musk also mentioned that Tesla would be looking to launch its Robotaxi service in the Bay Area in a month or two.

Sure enough, there were no delays with the Austin Robotaxi expansion’s rollout. On Sunday, electric vehicle owners reported on social media that their Robotaxi apps have been updated with a much larger geofence. The rates of the Robotaxi service was reportedly still kept at a flat rate of $4.20 per ride.

Industry watchers also observed that with Tesla’s newest update, the Austin Robotaxi program now operates in an area that is quite comparable to Waymo’s. During the initial launch of Austin’s Robotaxi service, critics were keen to point out that Tesla’s operational area was notably smaller than Waymo’s geofence.

New shape pisses off critics, makes fans laugh

The fact that Tesla was able to expand its Robotaxi service’s operational area in Austin over the weekend is undoubtedly impressive. In true Elon Musk fashion, however, it also ended up pissing off critics because Tesla’s geofence in Austin is now shaped like a phallus—intentionally. 

This was something that was suggested by TSLA retail investor Steve Mark Ryan as a joke, but in true Tesla spirit, the company did just that. It’s a classic Tesla move if one were to think about it.

Elon Musk and the Tesla team are keen to play around the joke too, with Musk posting on X that the Robotaxi service is now “bigger, longer, and uncut.” The official Robotaxi service’s X account, on the other hand, also wrote that its new service area is “harder, better, faster, stronger.”