A former Tesla employee rides the expanded Houston Robotaxi map and calls it partly "fake"
From the Robots digest for Oct 28, 2026
Thread: robots — Cybercab rollout under federal audit (NHTSA FMVSS self-certification) · continuing
What happened: Tesla's rocket-shaped Houston service-area expansion includes downtown blocks where the service won't actually pick riders up, according to Ethan McKanna, creator of Robotaxi Tracker and a former Tesla employee, per Electrek (published October 28, ~11:18 AM ET). McKanna rode the service after the October 26 expansion and called Houston "by far the most egregious 'fake' AV service area" he had seen; one trip quote had him spending about 40 minutes in a Robotaxi to go two blocks.
What's genuinely new: The first named, first-hand account challenging the functionality of the expansion map — a direct contradiction of the geofence-growth framing, from a tracker creator with an inside history at Tesla. Earlier coverage of the Houston rollout carried expansions and fleet numbers; this carries a documentable map-versus-service discrepancy.
Watch: Whether Tesla revises the Houston pickup map or the app's service boundaries, rider reports from inside the areas that do work, and whether the discrepancy draws any regulator attention.
Sources Electrek