The last ride of the night now leaves at midnight. Tesla's Robotaxi app alerted riders late on Friday, October 16 that rides now run until 12 a.m., and Daniel Aharonoff's The Cybercab Report tracks what the longer day means for the fleet on the Texas registry.

Riders report 6 a.m. to midnight service in Austin, Dallas and Tampa, covering both the purpose-built Cybercab and the Model Y robotaxis. The new close is one hour past the 11 p.m. cutoff Austin moved to at the start of October. Tesla has not announced the change beyond the in-app alert.

A weekend tally of the Texas vehicle registry counts 803 Tesla robotaxis: 454 Model Ys and 349 Cybercabs, with 34 Model Ys added on October 16 alone. A crowd-sourced tracker logged a record 1,072 Cybercab sightings in Austin on Friday, about 86 percent of them driverless.

Context: Austin ran 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. until early October. Elon Musk said the work before later hours was making sure the cars do not hit pets that are hard to see at night. Tesla's AI chief has said the upcoming FSD v15 software is meant to unlock round-the-clock operations, with a fleet rollout targeted for October.

Co-produced by Daniel Aharonoff.

Sources:

CyberCab.News (app alert, rider evidence, registry tally, sightings): https://www.cybercab.news/article/austin-robotaxi-hours-midnight-oct17

Tesla News Wire (hours extension, v15 context): https://teslanewswire.com/articles/tesla-cybercab-austin-hours-midnight-6am-robotaxi-oct-17-2026

Slovakia has become the ninth European Union country to clear Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) for public roads, and its transport minister paired the approval with a blunt limit: the driver's seat will not be empty. Daniel Aharonoff's The Cybercab Report contrasts Europe's country-by-country supervised approvals with the driverless Cybercab operating in Austin.

Slovakia's Ministry of Transport announced on October 16, 2026 that it officially recognized the Dutch vehicle authority RDW's preliminary type approval for Tesla FSD (Supervised). Tesla's Europe account posted "Now approved in Slovakia" and said rollout begins soon.

Transport Minister Jozef Ráž was explicit: it is not a fully autonomous system, so nobody should imagine the driver's seat will be empty. The driver remains fully responsible; the system monitors attention, warns a driver who is not focused, and can switch itself off.

The RDW issued its preliminary approval in April, and member states may recognize it individually. An EU-wide vote is not expected before December. Slovakia follows the Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Belgium, Slovenia, Czechia and Croatia.

Still unknown: which cars and software builds Slovak owners receive first, and how many eligible vehicles are on Slovak plates. Tesla increasingly labels the system "Assisted Driving" on its European sites after discussions with Germany, while Slovakia's statement still uses the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) name.

Co-produced by Daniel Aharonoff.

Sources:

Slovak Ministry of Transport press release (October 16, 2026): https://www.mindop.sk/media/tlacove-spravy/detail/slovensko-umoznilo-ciastocne-autonomne-riadenie-aut

Reuters via Investing.com (minister's pre-announcement, October 8, 2026): https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/slovakia-to-approve-tesla-fsd-system-within-days-93CH-4938399

Secondary report: https://teslanewswire.com/articles/slovakia-tesla-fsd-supervised-assisted-driving-ninth-eu-country-oct-16-2026

A water-filled pothole, an onboard safety monitor and no passengers: the latest NHTSA automated-driving crash dataset contains a Cybercab incident from August 2026, before public rides began. Daniel Aharonoff's The Cybercab Report reads the original company-submitted narratives and keeps report counts separate from crash rates.

Our October 15, 2026 download contains 57 Tesla report rows. Keeping only the highest version for each Report ID leaves 36 reports, including nine August incidents: five in Dallas, three in Austin and one in Tampa. Eight August vehicles are Model Ys; one is a Cybercab. All nine list property damage with no injuries reported.

Cybercab report 13781-16672 says the ADS was proceeding straight through an Austin parking lot at up to 5 mph when it drove into a large water-filled pothole. Tesla says an in-vehicle safety monitor was present and there were no passengers. This was not a crash on a paying passenger trip.

The other narratives include two incidents under remote support operator control, contact with chains and alley obstacles, and two accounts of another vehicle striking the robotaxi. These are Tesla's reported accounts, not independent findings of fault.

NHTSA warns that reporting requirements, access to crash data, and exposure differ. These counts are not adjusted for miles driven or fleet size and cannot support a fair safety ranking. The episode does not infer a defect, a recall, or an overall crash rate.

Co-produced by Daniel Aharonoff.

Sources:

NHTSA ADS incident CSV: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/ffdd/sgo-2021-01/SGO-2021-01_Incident_Reports_ADS.csv

NHTSA reporting rules, limitations and data context: https://www.nhtsa.gov/laws-regulations/standing-general-order-crash-reporting

Secondary report: https://teslanewswire.com/articles/tesla-robotaxi-nhtsa-crash-data-august-2026-first-cybercab-crash-dallas-austin