Tesla Robotaxi in Texas Is a Tenth the Size of Waymo
Official filings reveal Tesla runs just 42 self-driving cars in Texas, while Waymo fields 577 robotaxis. Tesla is expanding to new cities, and Waymo is raising money at a huge valuation.
- Tesla has registered just 42 self-driving cars in Texas, against 577 Waymo robotaxis.
- Tesla's service runs in Austin and the Bay Area, more than 500 vehicles in total, with the fleet reportedly doubling every month.
- Since launch the cars have covered nearly 700,000 paid miles.
- Waymo, meanwhile, is raising fresh funding at a valuation of at least $100 billion.
Who is actually winning the robotaxi race in Texas? If you only follow Tesla’s announcements, you would think Elon Musk has already taken over the streets. Official filings tell a different story: Tesla has just 42 self-driving cars in the state, while Waymo runs 577. That is almost a tenfold gap, and it favors the quieter rival that gets far less attention.
The numbers come from documents the companies are required to file with Texas regulators. They are a useful corrective to the marketing noise. Tesla has talked about robotaxis as a near future for years, but when you look at how many cars are actually carrying passengers, the picture is more modest than the ads suggest.
How far has Tesla really come?
Tesla’s robotaxi service currently runs in two areas, Austin in Texas and the Bay Area in California. The company says it has more than 500 vehicles in the service overall and that the fleet is doubling month over month. Since launch, those cars have together covered nearly 700,000 paid miles, which is no small figure for a service still in its early days.
The expansion plan is ambitious. Tesla says the service is coming to Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa and Las Vegas. If that happens, the network would quickly outgrow today’s 42 cars in a single state. But the key word is “if”. The filings show where the company is now, not where it plans to be.
It is worth separating two things that often get blurred. One is Tesla’s driver-assist system sold to car owners. The other is the genuine driverless robotaxi service that carries paying passengers. That second part is what counts in the filings, and there Tesla is still much smaller than its competition.
Why does Waymo look calm while Tesla makes noise?
Waymo is owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company, and has spent years quietly building its fleet. With 577 approved vehicles in Texas, it has a clearly larger footprint than Tesla in the state. While Tesla grabs headlines with every announcement, Waymo prefers to let the numbers speak.
Interestingly, Waymo is now raising fresh funding at a valuation of at least $100 billion. That figure shows how much investors believe in its approach, but also how expensive it is to keep and grow a fleet of self-driving cars. Sensors, maps, remote monitoring and insurance all cost money, no matter who is behind the project.
For those of us who cannot hail these services yet, the point is simple. The race for the autonomous taxi is not over, and it is not decided at press conferences but by the number of cars actually carrying passengers. Tesla has the louder story, Waymo for now has more cars on the road.
So here is the question for you: would you get into a driverless taxi when one finally arrives where you live, or would you still rather pay a human behind the wheel?
