Tesla's Robotaxi service in Austin now runs until 11 PM, an hour later than the cutoff it has used since August. Elon Musk said the main obstacle to pushing hours later is avoiding pets that are hard to spot in the dark.
Tesla's Robotaxi account announced the later cutoff on X at 8:52 PM PT on October 2, 2026, moving the daily end time from 10 PM to 11 PM. The account had set the 10 PM cutoff back on August 26, when it said the service would run from 6 AM to 10 PM, seven days a week. The new window runs 6 AM to 11 PM.
Musk cites nighttime pet risk
Musk quote-posted the announcement about 35 minutes later, at 9:27 PM PT, explaining why the later hours have come slowly. According to Musk: "Literally trying to avoid grey kittens on grey tarmac in the dark."
An extra hour is a small change on paper, but it affects an unsupervised service where late evenings cover a sizable share of demand, from diners heading home to people leaving events downtown. Musk's comment also offers a rare glimpse of the edge cases Tesla is still working through before extending hours further into the night.
A busy stretch for the Austin program
The later hours follow several other changes to the Austin service. The 67th Cybercab joined the Austin fleet on September 22, and since September 10, anyone in Austin has been able to hail a Cybercab directly from the Robotaxi app.
That app climbed to No. 1 among free travel apps on the App Store in early September. Tesla also recently made the Robotaxi trunk open automatically after rides, so passengers don't leave bags behind.
Source: TeslaNorth.com
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