Tesla Robotaxi Will Be a 24/7 Service: Here's When

Tesla AI lead Ashok Elluswamy indicated this week that 24-hour Robotaxi service is approaching, with a timeline of "next month or so" pending a specific software update.

What Happened

On September 4, Elluswamy responded to a rider’s request for overnight Cybercab trips by stating that the capability would become available once "the next tech to merge on the v15 plan" is ready. This comment followed Tesla’s opening of public Cybercab rides in Austin just one day prior. Currently, Tesla’s paid Robotaxi network operates from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week across Austin, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa. This 16-hour window is notably shorter than the 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. schedule the company utilized for much of the previous year.

Why It Matters

The transition to 24-hour service relies on Full Self-Driving v15, which Tesla describes as a step-change architecture featuring seven parallel improvement tracks and approximately ten times more parameters than earlier builds. Early versions of v15 are already operating on the Robotaxi fleet, containing about 40 percent of the planned gains. By July 2026, the unsupervised fleet had logged more than 380,000 miles across six cities in two states with an impeccable safety record, according to the company. Expanding to overnight hours tests this camera-based end-to-end neural network system in lower-light conditions and aims to increase vehicle utilization, a critical factor for Robotaxi unit economics. Tesla has previously cited the need for higher confidence in the software stack before deploying thousands of unoccupied vehicles around the clock.

The Bottom Line

If the next software module arrives on the timeline outlined by Elluswamy, 24-hour Robotaxi service could begin in October 2026 in at least some markets. This would represent a shift from a daytime-bounded pilot to a service capable of operating whenever demand exists, including the late-night hours currently unavailable to riders.