Nov 26 (Reuters) - Tesla Chief Executive Elon

Musk said on Tuesday that the number of robotaxis in Austin,

Texas, will double in December, following the rollout of its

self-driving service in the city in June.

"The Tesla Robotaxi fleet in Austin should roughly double

next month," Musk said in a post on X, which is also owned by

him.

It is not immediately clear how many robotaxis Tesla

operates.

Tesla's robotaxi service currently operates in two cities,

Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area, with safety monitors

still required in the vehicles. The company last week also

received a permit to operate a ride-hailing service in Arizona.

Musk said in October that he expected robotaxis to operate

without safety drivers in large parts of Austin this year and

that robotaxis would be operating in eight to ten metropolitan

areas by the end of the year.

In July, he said he expected Tesla robotaxis to serve about

half the U.S. population by year-end.

After years of missed promises and several company closures

due to high costs, tight regulations and federal investigations,

the robotaxi industry has rebounded with Tesla, Alphabet's

Waymo, and Amazon's ( AMZN ) Zoox speeding up

expansion.