Tesla gets permit for ride-hailing service in Arizona

Tesla has secured a transportation network company (TNC) permit from the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). The company submitted it on November 13, with approval coming just days later on November 17. With permit in hand, Tesla is one step closer to fully operating its Robotaxi service in Arizona, however, it will need more to run its ride-hailing service in the state fully.

The granting of this permit comes almost half a year after Tesla applied to conduct autonomous vehicle testing and operations in Phoenix, both with and without human safety drivers. It currently has pilots running in Austin, Texas, that began in June 2025 and is operating with human safety drivers /valets and remote operators. It is also operating in San Francisco’s Bay Area, but this is more of a traditional car service.

In the near-term, Tesla is planning to remove human safety drivers from its Austin cars, this is expected to happen before the end of the year. With this robotaxi fleet, the company has a national goal of creating a commercial service in cities around the country before the end of 2026.

While Tesla cars may be seen as futuristic electric vehicles, the company is lagging behind competitors in the commercial robotaxi market. In the United States, Alphabet’s Waymo operates a sizable commercial business in the Phoenix area with 400 autonomous vehicles and has performed more than 10 million driverless trips across the US as of May 2025.

In China, Baidu’s Apollo Go has provided 3.1 million fully driverless rides in the third quarter of 2025 alone. Companies in both the US and China are trying to get approval for operations in their domestic market and also abroad.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is busy running multiple companies including SpaceX and X (formerly Twitter). This splitting time between various companies could explain why rivals have got where they are as they’re able to focus more.

Source: CNBC