Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said the company started robotaxi rides with no safety monitor present in the car in Austin, a long awaited move. This comes after Waymo announced another expansion of its robotaxi service in the US, hammering home its lead in the autonomous space - for now.

Musk also claimed on Thursday that he expects the company’s self driving service to get EU and China approval soon.

Tesla shares popped on the news in midday trade, up over 3%.

In a post on X.com, Musk said Tesla "started Tesla Robotaxi drives in Austin with no safety monitor in the car. Congrats to the Tesla AI team!" This post came in response users on X posting videos of the Tesla robotaxi operating without a safety driver.

Tesla AI head Ashok Elluswamy added on X.com that the service is "starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader robotaxi fleet with safety monitors, and the ratio will increase over time."

Earlier on Thursday Waymo, part of Alphabet (GOOGL), said on its company blog that is is now operating in the Miami area, inviting its first public riders in the city. “With nearly 10,000 residents already signed up, we will be inviting new riders on a rolling basis to ensure a seamless experience across our initial 60-square-mile service area.”

Waymo says plans for rides to Miami International Airport will be coming soon.

Before the Miami announcement, Waymo operated in five major US market with Austin, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Phoenix and the greater San Francisco as part of its service area

This year Waymo has an aggressive plan, with Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Orlando, San Antonio, San Diego, Washington and Nashville targeted for public service.

It also has plans for densely populated cities, with testing ongoing in New York, Tokyo and London.

Meanwhile, Tesla with its autonomous and robotaxis services is lagging. At Davos earlier, Musk claimed the company’s FSD (full self driving) autonomous service, which is a supervised product meaning users must pay attention when using it, would soon be coming to Europe and China.

"We hope to ​get Supervised Full Self-Driving approval in Europe, hopefully next month, and then maybe a similar timing for China," Musk ‍said.

While Waymo currently is only testing internationally in the cities mentioned above, its service is level 4 autonomous, which is fully autonomous in certain geographic areas. Tesla’s FSD is considered level 2.

Tesla’s robotaxis, currently operating in Austin, TX and San Fransciso bay area, have grown in numbers but only modestly. The robotaxis still require a safety driver in each vehicle, owing to the fact it is still a supervised service. The new video shared by Musk suggests the company has approval to operate without a safety driver in Austin, but the CEO didn't share whether that was the case.

Morgan Stanley analysts believe the next big catalyst for Tesla’s robotaxi service is the removal of the safety driver, which appears to have happened at least in Austin. Morgan Stanley also predicts that Tesla will have 1,000 robotaxis in service by the end of the year; Waymo disclosed last year it has around 2,500 of its robotaxis out on public roads.

Expect to hear more about Tesla’s FSD, robotaxi service, and even its Cybercab purpose-built robotaxi product when the company announces earnings fourth quarter earnings on January 28th after the closing bell.

Pras Subramanian is Lead Auto Reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on X and on Instagram.

Click here for the latest technology news that will impact the stock market

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance