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Elon Musk Announces Expansion of Tesla Service

Originally posted on Men's Journal | By Mike Moraitis | Last updated Jul 31, 2025 4:11 PM ET

The Tesla ride-hailing service has expanded into a new city, CEO Elon Musk announced.

Just after midnight on Thursday, Tesla revealed that its ride-hailing service is now live in San Francisco, California, and that "invites to our Bay Area ride-hailing service are going out now."

Previously, the service was only available in Austin, Texas, where Tesla has launched its robotaxi service. Riders can use the same robotaxi app to access the ride-hailing service.

"You can now ride-hail a Tesla in the SF Bay Area, in addition to Austin," Musk wrote.

The area of service stretches from "north of the Golden Gate Bridge all the way south of San Jose," according to tech reporter Sawyer Merritt.

BREAKING: Tesla’s ride-hailing service is officially live in the Bay Area in their Robotaxi app!

It covers a large area from north of the Golden Gate Bridge all the way south of San Jose. It would take about 1-2 hours (up to 75 miles) depending on traffic to ride from the top to… pic.twitter.com/FqRr8MpYGf
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 31, 2025

It would appear the ride-hailing service will not feature fully autonomous driving. According to Reuters, California has not yet cleared Tesla's robotaxi service.

In order for Tesla to secure clearance, the company will need multiple permits from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

So far, Tesla has only acquired a DMV permit to test autonomous vehicles with a human driver.

Tesla and the DMV recently met, according to a spokesperson, but the company has not applied for the additional permits that are needed to launch Tesla's robotaxi service.

After kicking off in Austin last month, Tesla is hoping to expand the robotaxi service in a big way by the end of this year.

Musk said on an earnings call earlier this month that he's eyeing expansion to Florida, Nevada and Arizona. Supervised self-driving tests are currently underway in Europe and China, also.

This article first appeared on Men's Journal and was syndicated with permission.

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