- Waymo launched dozens of robotaxis to the streets of Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday.
- Autonomous rides are available exclusively through the Uber app there.
- Waymo’s driverless cars are available in five U.S. cities, while Tesla’s robotaxi pilot is in its very early stages.
The Sunday launch of Tesla’s robotaxi pilot was a milestone for a company that’s been promising to deliver self-driving cars for years. For industry leader Waymo, bringing an autonomous ridehailing service to a new city is just another Tuesday.
Waymo has started offering driverless rides in Atlanta, Georgia, via the Uber app, the two companies announced on Tuesday. The service kicks off with “dozens” of sensor-packed Jaguar I-Pace EVs, a Waymo spokesperson told InsideEVs.
The news underscores just how far behind Tesla is in the race to dominate driverless technology, a market that could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars in the next decade. The promise of finally delivering self-driving Teslas is what has pushed the EV maker’s market cap up over $1 trillion—nearly quadruple Toyota’s valuation. It’s what Elon Musk has said will determine whether Tesla is worth trillions in the future, or next to nothing. Tesla is just getting started, and Waymo isn’t standing still.
The Alphabet-owned firm also recently introduced autonomous cars to the streets of Austin, Texas, through its partnership with Uber. It now operates around 100 vehicles there. In both Southern cities, Waymos are exclusively available on the Uber app. Waymo plans to expand the its fleet across both cities to “hundreds of vehicles” over the next few years.
Photo by: Tesla
Tuesday’s news means that Waymo is now offering paid driverless rides in five cities: the two serviced through its Uber partnership, plus San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles. It has around 1,500 cars in its fleet and plans to more than double that through 2026. More cities are on the docket too, including Miami, Washington, D.C. and New York.
Uber is also ramping up its moves in the autonomous space and becoming a force to be reckoned with. Years after abandoning efforts to develop self-driving cars in-house, it’s racked up partnerships with 18 companies in the autonomous space. Those include May Mobility, China’s WeRide, Motional, and the driverless trucking company Aurora.
Tesla, meanwhile, is just getting its footing in its hometown of Austin, Texas. The automaker started offering paid autonomous rides to people who aren’t Tesla employees on Sunday. Its fleet consists of a small number of Model Ys operating in a specific area of Austin. So far, the service is invite-only, with hand-picked pro-Tesla influencers among the early crop of users. Each vehicle has a safety monitor sitting in the front passenger’s seat, who is able to stop the car.
While many videos from robotaxi riders showed relatively uneventful trips—exactly what you want from a robotic taxi—some users caught the Model Ys making mistakes. Clips show random braking events (a longtime Tesla issue known as “phantom braking”), cars going above the posted speed limit and cars swerving over double-yellow lines.
Tesla argues that it has an edge here: technology that is cheaper and more easily scalable than Waymo’s. It even poked fun at its rival with an X post on Sunday, saying that “Cars can drive themselves just fine without needing to wear a hat.” (Waymos have bulky sensors on their roofs and corners, while Tesla’s robotaxis are Model Y crossovers straight from the factory.)
Tesla only uses cameras and artificial intelligence to teach its cars how to drive in the real world, while Waymo also uses more advanced LiDAR sensors, radars and high-definition maps of the cities it operates in. Many experts in the autonomous vehicle space believe Waymo’s is the safer and more effective approach.
So far, Waymo has the upper hand, with a large fleet of driverless vehicles deployed across several cities, 250,000 paid rides happening per week and rare incidents. Musk has said that Tesla will rapidly grow its driverless fleet and expand to more cities. The big question now is how quickly and safely that can happen—and whether Waymo just continues to pull ahead.
Got a tip about the EV world? Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com