Elon Musk Makes Tesla Fans Think Unattended Robotaxis Has Arrived They Can’t Find Them
“I just started driving a Tesla Robotaxi in Austin without any safety precautions in the car,” Elon Musk wrote on X last Thursday. That post embedded a second post from Tesla enthusiast @TSLA99T’s account that says “I’m in a robot without safety precautions,” with a video showing the interior of a Tesla stopped at a red light. No one was sitting in the driver’s seat, the video was taken from the back seat. The video seems to prove what Elon Musk said is true: Tesla’s robotxis is now driverless, just like Waymo’s ride.
Tesla’s vice president of Software, Ashok Elluswamy, also wrote on January 22 that Tesla is “starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed with an extensive fleet of Robotaxi and Safety Monitors.”
Since that day, small fish fans of Tesla have posted on X about the prospect of finding an unsupervised Tesla robotaxis. And it’s possible that unsupervised rides for paying customers happen anonymously, but it looks like the company is offering preview rides to Tesla’s most loyal fans, and perhaps only with a Tesla driven by a human right behind the robot every step of the way.
For example, ever since the announcement of unsupervised riding, Tesla promoter David Moss, noted for claiming (with other real evidence) to have traveled from coast to coast in a Tesla without touching the steering wheel, has been hard at work trying to get it.
42 Riding a Tesla Robotaxi
you are 42 l
1 mission to find an unattended Model YIt’s hard to find a ride on the app and every ride I take I see literally 4-5 cars mapping the location that might be on the app
This was also my 5th trip in a row with the manager at the drivers… pic.twitter.com/fxAvY4dWrx
— David Moss (@DavidMoss) January 28, 2026
According to X’s post on Tuesday-five days after Musk’s announcement-Moss had taken a ride in 42 Tesla robotaxi, more than eight a day, and they all had managers not just in front, but behind the wheel. Tesla moved these holders from the passenger seat to the driver’s seat back in September.
It is not clear if TSLA99T claimed to have received an unsupervised Tesla robot ride as a paying customer. On the same day as the TSLA99T ride, Joe Tegtmeyer—a well-known Tesla-obsessive—also rode one of these “unguarded” Teslas, only to reveal that it was actually being guarded by a chase car. This will be a difficult way to use the robotaxi app.
According to Electrek (which first reported on this story) Tesla stock rose 4% on news of the unsupervised robotaxis. Other headlines seem to have caught on too, giving the impression that driverless rides are available to the public.
But, as Gizmodo wrote the day after Musk’s announcement, it appears that the rare “car chase” version of the unsupervised robot may be the only unsupervised version of Tesla’s robot currently on the road, but paying customers can’t even seem to get access to those.
As of this writing on Wednesday night, Moss was claiming that he had failed to ride 54 robots in a single unsupervised chase.
54 wasn’t my magic number as I had to ride another Tesla Robotaxi before bed lol pic.twitter.com/rgEMIXRbig
— David Moss (@DavidMoss) January 29, 2026
In a Tesla earnings call that took place while Moss was still searching, Elon Musk mentioned unsupervised driving, said that testing is happening in multiple cities, and that he and his company are “really surprised by the safety.”
Gizmodo has reached out to Tesla for information about whether there are any unsupervised rides for paying customers, and whether or not such rides involve a chase car. We will update when we hear back.
