Tesla Robotaxis lagging on US roads

Experts say Tesla is far behind Waymo, which has had a head start of several years

- JACK EWING

A Tesla robotaxi driving through Austin, Texas, this month. Experts are sceptical that the cars can safely operate without drivers.

Tesla's share price hit a record this month in part because many investors believe promises that the carmaker is poised to dominate the emerging market for driverless taxis worth trillions of dollars.

But a visit to Austin, Texas, where Tesla is operating a small fleet of autonomous cars, quickly makes clear that the company is entering a heated race and has a lot of catching up to do.

Tesla has deployed about 30 of its Robotaxis here, according to a website that tallies sightings, since it started its service in June. By contrast, Waymo, a division of Alphabet, Google's parent company, began its service in Austin in March and said it had about 200 vehicles on the road. That company offers paying rides in four other cities and has more than 2,500 vehicles in total.

This month at least one Tesla was spotted in Austin driving without anyone inside. But each of the Tesla cars that carry paying passengers has a person in the car monitoring it. All the Waymos ferrying passengers in Austin operate without human monitors.

"I've never seen a Robotaxi in Austin," said Kara Kockelman, a professor of engineering at the University of Texas at Austin who studies transportation. "Waymos are around all the time."

The difference between Tesla and Waymo is not surprising. Google began a self-driving car project in 2009. That project would became Waymo and start its first commercial taxi service in 2018 in Phoenix, giving it a many-year head start.