CITIES · Cities
Houston Lot Swells: Drone Pilot Counts Up to 200 Cybercabs
A local drone pilot estimates 190 to 200 Cybercabs at Tesla's Houston fleet lot, close to double the late-September count, with more inside the Tesla Hempstead Center. Paid Cybercab rides remain Austin only.
Sam Ellison, Live desk
Published · 2 min read
HOUSTON - Tesla's Cybercab fleet lot in Houston is filling up fast. A local drone pilot who posts on X as S.E. Robinson, Jr. flew over the yard and estimated that 190 to 200 of the gold two-seat robotaxis were parked there, with more inside the nearby Tesla Hempstead Center. That is close to double the count spotters reported at the same lot on Sept. 29.
"Extremely busy day at the lot," he wrote on Tuesday, sharing a 13-minute aerial video of the yard. He said testing went on the whole time he was in the air, with cabs moving in and out of the yard, and he counted about 15 Cybercabs on chargers. The title card on his video dates the flight to Oct. 4.
Robotaxi Radar, an X account that tracks Tesla's driverless fleet, shared the footage on Tuesday. The account said Houston's lot had seen "a major Cybercab influx over the past month, and plenty of testing," and added, "These cars are moving."
The climb has been steady. In mid-September, Robotaxi Radar counted at least 50 Cybercabs in the same lot, at a time when local watchers said the yard looked thinner because more cars were out testing closer to downtown. By Sept. 29, spotters working from new photos and video put the figure at about 105.
The new footage shows long rows of gold Cybercabs parked nose to tail across the main yard, a camera and solar mast standing among them, and single cars rolling out onto the road beside the lot.
Houston already has driverless Robotaxi rides in Tesla's Model Y. Austin is still the only city where the public can book a paid ride in a purpose-built Cybercab, and Tesla has not said when Cybercab rides will open in Houston.
A drone count is an estimate, not a fleet number, and Tesla does not publish how many Cybercabs it has in each city. Even so, a lot that held about 50 of the cars in mid-September now looks close to four times as full.
The next thing to watch is whether Cybercabs start turning up in the Houston Robotaxi app. Until then, the Houston lot is the clearest public sign of how many are on the way.
