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Tesla’s Robotaxis Want to Follow Waymo Here
The EV maker seemingly commits to chasing the robotaxi industry leader in the American southwest, but fleet volume will still take time to achieve.
Tesla hasn't even launched a full-fledged service for all paying passengers in its home town of Austin, Texas, but it already has its sights set on another city in the southwest.
And it's one we've been hearing about for years when it comes to autonomous testing and technology.
Tesla has applied to test its autonomous driving tech and later launch a robotaxi service in Phoenix, Arizona, which has seen other autonomous developers including Waymo dating back to the second half of the 2010s.
Shortly after launching a small-scale roll-out of its Model Y robotaxis in Austin, open only to groups of approved influencers, Tesla said it would head to the Bay Area next, which has seen autonomous testing by multiple developers for over a decade, but where Tesla has not rushed to compete with others in passenger-carrying taxis.
Tesla's Austin experiment, not even a month old at this point, saw its share of controversy owing to a small fleet of about 20 cars, and at times very liberal driving manners by its robotaxis with human monitors still in the front seats.
Among other things, Tesla's SAE Level 4 tech differs from Waymo's via the former's reliance solely on cameras to navigate streets, while other robotaxis tend to use lidar, radar, and ultrasonic sensors.
One thing the services have in common is that they rely on remote human monitors to solve traffic issues in real time once a robotaxi requests help.
Tesla has not said when the human monitors in the cars might depart, though at the moment they offer an extra level of safety for passengers.
When it comes to autonomous operations in Phoenix, the city currently boasts one of Waymo's single largest fleets, so Tesla won't be trying to pull away market share from day one.
Other autonomous developers operate in Arizona as well, including Nuro and May Mobility, as the state has traditionally been very friendly to autonomous vehicle research and testing.
It remains to be seen just how quickly Tesla can introduce fleets in San Francisco and Phoenix, but it will certainly take a while to achieve operations on par with Waymo, which is the current industry leader, offering some 250,000 rides per week in the US with a fleet of over 1,500 robotaxis.
Tesla is seeking to expand in cities where others like Waymo already have a presence, instead of trying to find entirely new markets devoid of robotaxis.
For instance, Tesla isn't trying to capture 100% of the robotaxi market share in a city like Indianapolis or Seattle.
Part of the issue is the regulatory landscape, as not all states and cities welcome SAE Level 4 vehicles, and another part is the ability to scale up a fleet presence that can cater to riders using apps.
At the moment, Tesla's robotaxis aren't even open to everyone who wants to go for a spin in Austin via its proprietary app, so this expansion will proceed one step at a time.
Will even 50% of all ride-hailing trips be performed by robotaxis in the US by 2030, or will this remain a niche technology in a handful of cities? Please comment below.