Tesla has quietly begun testing unsupervised Model Y robotaxis in Orlando and Tampa, Florida, a day before its second-quarter earnings call, extending trials beyond a small recent launch in Miami. The move highlights the gap between Tesla's cautious, incremental rollout and CEO Elon Musk's earlier promises that the robotaxi service would cover half of the US population by the end of 2025, a target the company has repeatedly fallen short of.

The Florida expansion makes it the third city in the state where Tesla is piloting the service, with both new operational areas reportedly small and no further details disclosed, consistent with Tesla's practice since disbanding its press office. The company similarly announced robotaxi fleets in Dallas and Houston ahead of its first-quarter results but has yet to scale those up. Tesla could get regulatory help from a Trump administration proposal, floated last month by the Department of Transportation, to drop the requirement for brake pedals in vehicles designed to be autonomous, which could pave the way for wider deployment of its two-seater Cybercabs already staged in various cities.