It’s no secret that Tesla has been working on self-driving technology for over a decade in an effort to have driverless ride-hailing cars on public roads.
In June, the company invited selected users to download the Tesla Robotaxi app in Austin, Texas – the service’s first city.
Now, less than 6 months later, Tesla has surprised many in Australia and launched the Robotaxi app locally.
According to Chris Q, an avid reader of The Driven, the app is now available on Apple App Store when searching “Tesla Robotaxi”.
Within the store, it’s listed with the sub-heading of “The future of autonomy”and can be downloaded by all iOS users.
After downloading and installing the app, it does show that Australian users are outside the service area, with the map defaulting to Austin, Texas, where the service is available in a large geo-fenced area.
Image: Chris Q
On X, several users also shared that they had downloaded the app, with one saying: “It’s now on my phone. Look forward to the day I can actually use it down under”.
The Robotaxi service first started in Austin on 22 June 2025 and operated daily between the hours of 6 AM and Midnight.
Initial users of the service in Austin were offered rides for a standard flat fee of $US4.20 to take the service.
Image: Joe Tegtmeyer
To book the rides, these users had to have the Tesla Robotaxi app downloaded and installed, and some users, such as Joe Tegtmeyer, an Austin-based professional drone pilot and Tesla enthusiast, shared the user interface of the app when a booking was made for his first ride in the Robotaxi.
After entering the drop-off location to a local botanical garden in Texas, it showed that the Robotaxi was 7 minutes away from giving him a ride.
Once the car arrives at the pickup location, passengers can get in and put their seat belts on before confirming the drop-off location on the rear passenger screen and the trip starts by tapping “Start Ride” on the rear screen of the Model Y
The car then shifts to drive and starts to autonomously navigate its way to the destination, similar to what many would experience with an Uber ride in Australia, but without a driver taking you to the destination.
Image: Joe Tegtmeyer
The release of the Robotaxi app in Australia provides a hint at Tesla’s global ambition with the Robotaxi service. This also marks a major milestone in Tesla’s roadmap to roll out fully autonomous vehicles using its self-developed FSD software.
It also comes just 14 months since the We Robot event, where the next generation Robotaxi, the Cybercab, was first unveiled, and attendees were given rides around Warner Brothers studios in California.
The Cybercab is expected to go into production in April 2026, but given the experience of those in the US where the Robotaxi is available, it’s looking quite promising and sets the stage for the service to expand further, possibly even internationally, in 2026.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.
