The Robotaxi service areas Tesla shows on its maps don’t tell the whole story. Just because a neighborhood falls inside the geofence doesn’t mean you can actually get picked up or dropped off there.
Tesla enthusiast Koby Pierce (@koby_pierce) has been mapping where the Robotaxi app actually lets you request pickups and drop-offs, and he’s finished all four of Tesla’s Texas markets. His method uses emulators running the Robotaxi app to request pickups and drop-offs across each service area and record which spots are available.
Not a Tesla App
The results show that the usable areas are 22% to 41% smaller than the advertised geofences, though they still cover most of the people living inside the boundaries.
City
Advertised Area
Real Usable Area
Share of Advertised Area That’s Usable
Austin
273 sq. miles
160 sq. miles
59%
Houston
255 sq. miles
188 sq. miles
74%
Fort Worth
144 sq. miles
105 sq. miles
73%
Dallas
81 sq. miles
63 sq. miles
78%
Austin: 160 sq. Miles
Austin has the biggest gap. Its real pickup and drop-off area is about 160 sq. miles, roughly 41% smaller than the 273 sq. miles Tesla advertises. Most of the missing coverage is on the east side of town, while central Austin, Downtown, Hyde Park, Mueller, and South Congress are almost fully covered. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Giga Texas, and the University of Texas campus are also off-limits for pickups.
Not a Tesla App
Even with that gap, about 675,000 of the roughly 809,000 people living inside the advertised area, or 83%, are inside the real served area.
Dallas: 63 sq. Miles
Dallas has the tightest match. Its usable area is about 63 sq. miles of the advertised 81, or roughly 78% of the land. It covers about 89% of residents, around 337,000 of 381,000 people.
@koby_pierce / X
Most of the gaps in Dallas are small. Love Field airport is a no-go zone, and a 4.6-sq.-mile stretch of the Trinity River floodplain counts toward the area even though there’s nowhere to stop there. Pierce also mapped the area’s railroads, which include about 80 miles of track, 33 miles of light rail, and 199 street-level crossings. He found they affect coverage in some spots, but not by much overall.
Houston: 188 sq. Miles
Houston’s usable zone is about 188 sq. miles, which is around 26% smaller than the advertised 255 sq. miles. Houston recently grew to nearly 10x its original size, and most of the gaps are on its eastern edge near Downtown and in the far south.
@koby_pierce / X
Railroads seem to play a bigger role here. When Pierce laid the city’s 143 miles of rail track over the map, the gaps lined up closely with the tracks. He said Houston is the only city he’s tested where Tesla seems to be avoiding railroads that heavily.
@koby_pierce / X
Fort Worth: 105 sq. Miles
Tesla’s newest market, Fort Worth, has about 105 sq. miles of usable area out of the advertised 144, or about 73% coverage. Meacham Airport and Naval Air Station Fort Worth are no-go zones, while Downtown, the Stockyards, TCU, and the Cultural District are covered.
@koby_pierce / X
What the Maps Show
Pierce’s biggest takeaway is that Tesla’s usable zones cover a larger share of residents than of land. Many of the uncovered spots are parks, wooded areas, fields, industrial zones, and other places where fewer people live. Some of them, like parks without roads, would never have pickup spots anyway, but the coverage share and maps don’t account for that (yet).
All of this suggests a pattern for how Tesla rolls out new cities, prioritizing where people actually live and travel rather than every block inside the boundary. Pierce said coverage has been improving with each new city Tesla launches.
Pierce plans to map Tesla’s Florida geofences next, along with Waymo’s service areas. He’s also building a website where riders can explore the real usable zones with overlays for crime rates, railroads, and population.
Tesla is also improving the Robotaxi service in other ways. It recently extended Robotaxi hours in Austin to 2 a.m. and added a Calm Mode that removes distractions from the touchscreen for a more relaxing ride. Tesla has also named Las Vegas, Phoenix, Jacksonville, and San Antonio as its next Robotaxi cities. As those markets launch and existing ones grow, the gaps between advertised and real coverage should keep shrinking.
We hear about great software ideas from Tesla owners all the time. Starting today, you can share yours on our new Tesla feature requests page, upload photos and vote for your favorite ideas. We'll also highlight the requests with the most votes each month to help bring those ideas to Tesla's attention.
Building on Our Community Tools
We recently rebuilt our lock sounds library and added our custom license plate generator and vehicle wraps library. Those pages help owners personalize their vehicles. This next addition is something we've wanted to build for a long time, a shared software wishlist where owners can publish their suggestions and find support from others.
Submit an Idea and Add Photos
You can write about the feature you'd like Tesla to add and upload images to help explain it. Whether it's a small change to an existing menu or a new software feature, describe the problem and how your suggestion would address it.
You can access the feature any time under Software > Feature Requests.
A thoughtful submission gives other owners more to work with. Explain when you'd use the feature and how it’d make things easier or better. A screenshot, mockup or photo can help illustrate what you have in mind. The clearer your proposal, the easier it is for others to share it and decide whether to support it.
Vote for the Features You Want
You don't need to submit an idea to take part. Browse what others have suggested and vote for the features you'd most like to see implemented.
Tesla has sought owner input before. In 2025, Lars Moravy asked owners what they'd like Tesla to improve, prompting requests involving charging, driver profiles and other features. We're hopeful Tesla will also browse this list and consider the ideas owners support most.
First Monthly Roundup on December 1
Every month, we'll share the ideas with the most votes and tag Tesla to bring attention to those requests. Our first roundup will be published December 1, giving owners time to submit suggestions and vote before we share the results.
Head to our feature requests page to add your Tesla idea, include a helpful image and vote for the changes you'd like to see.
