The Austin-based electric vehicle maker wants to build a charging hub with 56 stalls for autonomous cabs at 245 W. Josephine St., a vacant property next to Nathaniel Hawthorne Academy near Pearl, according to an application filed Tuesday with the city.
The facility would be used for Tesla's private ride-hailing fleet and not open to the general public like the company's Supercharger stations are.
The application identifies Tesla as the owner of the property, but real estate records indicate it is owned by RS Josephine Development LLC, a company affiliated with Houston-based Rockspring. An executive at the company declined to comment, and Tesla did not immediately respond to an inquiry Wednesday.
Tesla is seeking to expand its robotaxi service and increase adoption of its self-driving software.
The company launched its ride-hailing fleet with human safety monitors in Austin last year and expanded into Dallas and Houston in April. It announced Wednesday it's rolling out unsupervised robotaxis in the greater Austin metropolitan area.
Despite Elon Musk's boasts about Tesla's robotaxis, the service lags behind industry leader Waymo, which has about 3,800 vehicles operating across 11 U.S. cities, including San Antonio and Austin. Tesla has only 42 of its Robotaxi-branded Model Ys operating across Texas, including about 25 in Austin, while California-based Waymo has 477 vehicles in Texas, including about 300 in Austin.
Tesla's robotaxis cover a 245-square-mile service area in Austin and significantly smaller footprints in Dallas and Houston.
Waymo vehicles serve 140 square miles in Austin, 60 square miles in San Antonio and 50 square miles in both Houston and Dallas.
In Austin, Tesla has reported 17 Robotaxi crashes and Waymo has tallied 75, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Tesla's long-term plan is to let privately owned Teslas join a robotaxi network where owners could send their cars to earn money while not using it. Musk has said that could begin this year, but the company's Full Self-Driving system, which the cars rely on for autonomous operation, hasn't been approved for such work.
Waymo service is still paused in San Antonio following an April incident where floodwaters swept a Waymo car off an I-35 access road, prompting the company to update software across its fleet.
Tesla's charging facility proposal in San Antonio mirrors similar plans by the company in the Phoenix area, where it has proposed stations with 56 stalls for robotaxis.
Rockspring recently put the West Josephine property up for sale, but subsequently took down the listing. The Bexar Appraisal District values it at $1.7 million.
The site was slated to be part of a mixed-use development proposed by Harris Bay, which unveiled plans to build 1,000 apartments about 70,000 square feet of commercial space in the area in 2022.
The project would encompass multiple properties along West Josephine Street between West Grayson Street and East Ashby Place. Designs showed four buildings: one next to Hawthorne Academy, one at the corner of East Dewey Place and North St. Mary's Street across from the Josephine Theatre and two on either side of Polk Street.
After the City Council approved a rezoning request, Rockspring acquired the parcels in 2022 and 2023. The company won approval in 2024 to rezone a site at the corner of Polk and Josephine streets, where it proposed 225 apartments, 25,000 square feet of commercial space, a hotel and 225 parking spots.
Rockspring demolished several buildings on its properties, but it hasn't begun construction on the larger development.
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