Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed during the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum on Tuesday that the company’s Robotaxi platform would eventually land in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, essentially confirming the intention to grow a driverless fleet of vehicles outside of the United States.
This is the first time Musk has specifically confirmed Tesla’s intention to expand into Saudi Arabia, although based on the company’s plans, a global expansion is more expected than a confined Robotaxi platform that is limited to only the West.
Musk confirmed during the Investment Forum, where the U.S. agreed with the Saudis to a $600 billion investment pledge, that Robotaxi would eventually expand to the country. The CEO did not mention a specific timeframe, but Tesla is set to launch the Robotaxi platform in Austin, Texas, in June.
“Really, you can think of cars, or future cars, as being robots on four wheels. I think it will be very exciting to have autonomous vehicles here in the Kingdom, if you’re amenable.”
🚨 Tesla Robotaxi will be available in Saudi Arabia, Elon Musk confirms:
“You heard it here from Elon! He’s bringing Robotaxi to the Kingdom.” pic.twitter.com/3IeaZezYb8
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) May 13, 2025
As Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite is still supervised, it is expanding to other parts of the globe. Earlier this year, it made its way to China for the first time ever, with many giving rave reviews of the driver assistance platform.
Tesla plans to expand to Europe later this year, but the company is still awaiting regulatory approval from EU agencies, something that will likely take some time to complete.
The big takeaway is that the Robotaxi platform is not confined to a single model, like the Cybercab. Instead, Robotaxi could be any Tesla vehicle, as long as it is capable of unsupervised Full Self-Driving. This is something that will require Tesla to work with local authorities to first launch a Supervised version of the suite, which could then expand to the unsupervised FSD platform, enabling a Robotaxi network in the country.
Nevertheless, Tesla’s relationship with the Middle East seems to be good. The company recently launched the Cybertruck in Saudi Arabia, enabling customer orders just last month.
Tesla confirms Cybertruck will make its way out of North America this year
Additionally, Musk’s Starlink was recently given approval for both maritime and aviation use cases, expanding the relationship between the country and the CEO. This was also confirmed during the Investment Forum today.
