Can I ride Tesla in San Francisco Bay Area?

Riding Tesla in San Francisco Bay Area

Tesla opened Bay Area rides on Jul 30, 2025, booked through the Tesla Robotaxi app. In Mar 2026, Electrek reported the CPUC's confirmation that Tesla is not operating an autonomous vehicle service in California. The company holds a charter-party carrier permit and no AV permit, and Obi described the drivers as employees. A trip is a ride-hail in a Tesla running its supervised driving software, with a person ready to take over.

The draw is reach. Pieced together from published descriptions, the area runs from San Francisco down the Peninsula to San Jose and back up the East Bay through Fremont and Oakland to Richmond, about 755 sq mi of land. Not a Tesla App reported at launch that these rides can use highways, unlike Tesla's early Austin service, though no second source backs that up. Tesla's general rules hold here too: you must be 18 to book, nobody sits in the front-left seat, and only service animals may come along.

Price is the other reason people choose it. Obi's late-2025 study logged an average Tesla wait of 15.32 minutes, far longer than other services, alongside much lower fares, and a spring 2026 follow-up found Tesla's average price up 41% but still roughly half of Waymo's. Riders who want nobody at the wheel should book Waymo. Tesla's own driverless rides run in Texas and Florida, Tampa among them, and Waymo vs Tesla Robotaxi compares the two companies.