Tesla’s robotaxis will be widespread in the U.S. by end of 2026

Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk said Thursday that his company will have a “pervasive” driverless robotaxi network in the U.S. by the end of 2026.

“Tesla has launched its robotaxi service in a few cities and it will be very, very widespread in the United States by the end of this year,” he said in his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Tesla robotaxis finally hit the road with human safety inspectors in Austin in June, after years of reneging on promises to deliver fully driverless cars. The company later launched a carpool with human-driven cars in San Francisco.

The company has not received permission to test or operate its vehicles on public roads without a human behind the wheel.

Musk told investors in 2019 that he was “very confident” the company could bring the vehicles to market by 2020.

Tesla operates in the increasingly competitive self-driving vehicle market. AlphabetHe supported Waymo. AmazonZoox, which it owns, also entered the space in 2025. Waymo closed the year in five U.S. markets and launched service in Miami on Thursday.

This was Musk’s first appearance at the annual meeting of world leaders in years. The tech billionaire had previously mocked the forum on social media, saying: “boring.”

During his meeting with him black rock Musk also said Tesla will sell its Optimus robots to the public by the end of 2027, CEO Larry Fink said.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in 10 years, but at the rate that AI is advancing, I think we could have an AI that’s smarter than any human by the end of this year, and I can say that by next year at the latest,” Musk said.

WRISTWATCH: The year robotaxi led by Waymo became widespread

CNBC’s Lora Kolodny also contributed to this story.