Tesla has launched its unsupervised robotaxi service in Dallas and Houston over the weekend, but catching a ride wasn’t a walk in the park for some users—and the few that did were in for some unwanted surprises.
First off, the problem is the service area in each city is small—30 square miles in Dallas and 25 square miles in Houston. That means Tesla’s self-driving car service covers less than 10 percent of Dallas, which has an area of 385 square miles, and less than 4 percent of Houston (approximately 650 square miles).
And that’s not all. According to a third-party robotaxi tracker, Tesla only has one Model Y robotaxi in each city, and each car has logged less than 10 rides at the time of writing. No wonder people had a difficult time finding cars on the Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing app.
This Dallas Trip Was a Glitch Fest
😞 Tesla @robotaxi in Dallas fails to read the sign correctly and refuses to turn on red 😖
Angry driver honks 4 times and finally goes around! 🤬🤬🤬
It turned on red at other lights but I think this sign confused it 😭 pic.twitter.com/eB3GPVMnR6
— TexasTSLA (@TexasTSLA) April 19, 2026
Dallas resident Chris Ramos told Business Insider he waited almost two hours for a ride, and when he finally got one, it was a pretty wild one. While the self-driving Model Y handled city driving smoothly, it did have some difficulty reading signals; for example, it failed to realize that it could turn right at a red light, being repeatedly honked at by other drivers.
The real problems started when the robotaxi missed an exit and entered a highway. It picked up speed to keep up with traffic, which was going at 80 to 90 mph, but then it suddenly started to slow down looking for a spot to pull over.
Welcome to Dallas bud 😅😅🤣
Dear @Tesla FSD users have said multiple times nav and map data is 🥔 and needs to be improved @robotaxi misses its exit!
ROBOTAXI DRIVES ON THE HIGHWAY and freaks out!!
THEN TRIES TO PULL OVER AS TRAFFIC IS FLYING BY 80-90mph!!!
Rider… pic.twitter.com/MNBTlarMlP
— TexasTSLA (@TexasTSLA) April 19, 2026
One of the videos Chris (@TexasTSLA) posted on X.com shows the vehicle screen displaying the following message: “Vehicle is finding a safe location to pull over.” That’s not something you want to see when you’re on the highway, and that made the passenger feel unsafe. Then suddenly a Tesla support agent chimes in to assist the rider, only for the connection to break seconds later.
Is Tesla Beta Testing Its Robotaxi Service on Real People?
Guess @robotaxi in Dallas needs a map update like the rest of us FSD users 😅😅
It tried to drop me off 2.6 miles away from my destination and got stuck in an infinite loop but thankfully rider support took over 🕹️😀
✌️❤️ pic.twitter.com/4QpH0XFwNn
— TexasTSLA (@TexasTSLA) April 19, 2026
But wait, there’s more. Another video shared by the same user shows the robotaxi trying to drop him off 2.6 miles away from his destination and getting stuck in an infinite loop, circling a hotel five times. Rider support took over and tried to steer the car to the correct location, but that took several minutes. Furthermore, the discussion between the operator and the passenger is quite telling of the fact that the service is definitely not ripe for public consumption.
At one point, the operator asks the passenger if he has the ability to change the destination in the main screen; that really sounds like Tesla is using paying passengers to beta test its robotaxi service.
Screen on my @robotaxi in Dallas malfunctioned as well 😭😅
Screen got stuck and kept telling me to EXIT SAFELY as we were driving 40MPH 🤣🤣💀
I couldn’t watch any videos, listen to any music, check out the map, adjust the air or anything 😣 pic.twitter.com/2rl9WghKYQ
— TexasTSLA (@TexasTSLA) April 19, 2026
Imagine if a crash happened and someone got hurt. Actually, had the passenger listened to the instructions on the screen, which at one point got stuck displaying the message “Please exit safely” as the vehicle was traveling at 40 mph, a tragedy would have almost certainly happened.
In the end, the self-driving Tesla Model Y took 54 minutes to cover about 11 miles, costing the user around $18. Overall, the glitchy trip may have been exciting for a Tesla fan like Chris, but he said he would not recommend the service to his grandmother.
