Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, announced that the race between his company's Robotaxi autonomous taxi fleet and its competitor Waymo, owned by Alphabet, "was never a real competition," after Tesla's driverless fleet recorded 438,000 miles in the city of Austin, Texas, in a single week, slightly surpassing Waymo's weekly average in the city, which reached 406,000 miles.
This comparison was based on data from an independent tracking project that collects Tesla's weekly safety reports and Waymo's safety impact data. However, details indicate that Musk's comparison relied on Tesla's best week for recording mileage in a single city compared to an old average for Waymo dating back to the second quarter of the year, while the broader national picture shows a significant lead for Waymo, which covers weekly mileage that is several times what Tesla records nationwide.
What Has Practically Changed in the Tesla Fleet?
The sudden surge in recorded mileage for Tesla in Austin is due to the company's launch of public Cybercab trips on September 3, along with an increase in the number of self-driving vehicles registered in Texas, reaching hundreds of cars as part of an intensive strategy to deploy the fleet in a specific city.
Despite this local expansion, company reports and officials revealed that operations remain restricted by strict technical and software considerations. Tesla officials explained that the software avoids any minor risk, which currently prevents the cars from driving on high-speed highways or handling certain conditions such as at-grade railroad crossings, sometimes leading to long detours compared to the comprehensive solutions offered by Waymo in several American cities.
What Does This Comparison Mean for Users?
Current data shows that Tesla is achieving rapid growth in mileage covered through its experimental fleet in Austin, but reliance on a single city and a limited operational scope raises questions about the technology's readiness for immediate large-scale expansion compared to the broader networks managed by Waymo in multiple states, including urban spaces and highways.