Nevada grants Tesla 10 robotaxis after Las Vegas asks for 5,000

Nevada regulators have handed Tesla a dramatically scaled-down approval for its Las Vegas robotaxi ambitions, granting just 10 autonomous vehicles after the company requested permission for 5,000. The Nevada Transportation Authority issued an interim order on 27 July that sets the fleet cap far below what Tesla had sought, marking a cautious start for the company’s driverless ride-hailing plans in the state.

The paperwork tells the story of the gap. Tesla Robotaxi submitted its application on 5 June, requesting an autonomous vehicle network permit for Clark County. The filing specified “no more than five thousand (5,000) vehicles for the first twelve (12) months” and named both Harry Reid International Airport and Henderson Executive Airport as operational hubs. The subsequent order, however, granted “a maximum fleet of ten (10) fully autonomous vehicles” and excluded the airports entirely.

The permit comes with tight restrictions. All trips must begin and end within Clark County, and operations are “limited to the Las Vegas Strip corridor” inside a mapped zone that the Authority must still approve. The document prohibits passenger pickups on roads with speed limits above 45 miles per hour, and it bars any pickup at Harry Reid International Airport or within a quarter-mile of it. Those airport operations would require separate sign-off from the airport operator and other agencies.

The conditions attached to the permit go well beyond the fleet cap. Every vehicle must display “Robotaxi” markings, according to the order. Passengers must be informed before each trip that the car has no driver. The operations must include “appropriate human supervision” in line with Society of Automotive Engineers standards. Tesla also faces a five-working-day reporting window for any crash, security incident, or system failure, including data interruptions and cases where a robotaxi ends up disabled on a Nevada roadway.

The supervision requirement marks a notable departure from how Tesla operates elsewhere. Fortune reported that the company has been offering rides in parts of Austin without a safety monitor in the vehicle since January. Nevada’s language suggests regulators there are not ready to follow that model. Tesla also runs robotaxi services in Dallas, Houston, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and it began offering rides in its purpose-built Cybercab last week.

Neither Tesla nor the Authority responded to Fortune’s request for comment. Clark County, which does not issue the permit but must manage its consequences, said it was left without a formal role in the process. The county noted that the fallout touches its fire services, business licensing, and the airport. A spokesperson told Fortune the arrangement left the county exposed. “While the Clark County does not authorize this type of transportation on our roadways, we are directly impacted by the operations of the robotaxis.”

Tesla is not the first company to navigate this process, and its terms look modest next to a rival already operating in the region. Amazon’s Zoox has held Nevada permits since 2025, starting with a 65-vehicle cap that allowed only free rides, Fortune reported. The Authority raised that ceiling to 100 vehicles and permitted paid fares in July, just two weeks before Tesla’s approval.

Zoox began charging passengers on 10 August. Federal regulators had previously granted the company a two-year exemption covering up to 2,500 vehicles nationwide, since its robotaxi lacks a steering wheel and pedals. In Las Vegas, Zoox says its fleet has logged more than three million miles and carried close to a million riders for free. The company now operates about 50 cars on the Strip.

That track record likely explains the modest starting number, according to Fortune. The Authority has used Zoox’s gradual rollout as a blueprint, scaling permits up over time rather than approving a large fleet at once. Regulators in other states have also shown caution. New Jersey lawmakers have weighed a bill that could exclude Tesla based on its sensor choices.

Tesla had been preparing the ground before the permit arrived. The company is spending roughly $3.1 million to outfit a 37,000-square-foot building in the south-west of the valley, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The work includes adding superchargers and vehicle lifts. Tesla has also been hiring for Las Vegas robotaxi roles, including night-shift supervisors.

Its local footprint is expanding. Tesla Robotaxi holds two Clark County business licences, one tied to the new building for vehicle washing and detailing, and another on Fremont Street for administrative work, the EV outlet Tesla North reported. The company also holds a separate state approval from last year, though that covered testing on public roads rather than paid rides.

The business model differs from its competitors. Unlike Zoox and Motional, which lease or partner for their vehicles, Tesla builds the car, writes the self-driving software, and now holds the commercial permit itself, Fortune noted. On an earnings call this year, chief executive Elon Musk said he expected robotaxis and self-driving cars to be operating in about a dozen states by the end of the year, though he did not name them.

Musk has described the expansion as measured. “We’re taking a very cautious approach to the rollout here,” he said on the call, adding that the company had recorded no injuries or fatalities with its unsupervised driving so far and wanted to keep it that way. He said robotaxi revenue would not be “super material” this year, but he expected it to carry more weight in 2027.

For now, the order leaves Tesla with 10 cars on a quarter-mile-limited stretch of the Strip, capped at 45 miles per hour, and no date set for when paying passengers can climb in.