Waymo is scheduled to expand in the Silicon Valley after the approval of the California Public Utilities Committee (CPUC) on the passenger safety plan, supported by Alphabet earlier this week. Competition in the Robotaxi industry in the United States is scheduled to be heated where Tesla is preparing to launch the Robotaxi service in Austin next month.
Currently, Waymo runs Robotaxi commercial services in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles. In Austin, the company made a partnership with Uber. On the other hand, Tesla plans to release robots in June on a small scale.
After CPUC approval, Waymo can provide an independent commercial ride service in South Bay and almost San Jose. In his post on X, Waymo said, “While this will not change our operations in the short term, we look forward to achieving the benefits of Waymo to more than the Gulf region in the future.”
We are very excited to share that CPUC has agreed to our request to run full commercial horseback service in South Bay and almost San Jose!
Although this will not change our operations in the short term, we look forward to bringing …
– Waymo (Waymo) May 19, 2025
Waymo has greatly expanded its operations
Waymo has expanded its operations greatly in recent years, and during the Q1 2025 profit call, Alphabet said that Waymo offers about 250,000 flights per week, which rose 5X from last year. The company recently announced that it had reached a milestone of 10 million paid robotics trips.
Although Waymo does not provide the details surrounding its stake in the market, Alex Mermerman from A16z indicated that Waymo had a 22 % market share of San Francisco Rideshare market in November 2024, similar to Lyft. Waymo has ate the market share of Uber and Lyft in the region even with the cooperation of the firm ride participation company in a handful of major fields.
Waymo is also planning to launch at Atlanta later in the summer and also announced intentions to start operations in Washington, DC and Miami in 2026.
Tesla was repeated the launch of June from Robotaki
The CEO of Tesla El Musk has repeated that the company is on the right path to start the Robotaxi service in Austin by the end of June. Musk said that horseback riding will not have a safety driver, but it will be monitored by remotely by Tesla employees.
However, reports indicate that everything is not fine with launch. In its message to Tesla earlier this month, the National Road Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) The company asked how vehicles perform in bad weather. The letter added: “The agency would like to collect additional information on the development of Tesla technologies for use in” Robotaxi “vehicles to understand how Tesla plans to evaluate its cars and automated operating technologies to drive on public roads.”
It is worth noting that Musk promised that Tesla would achieve full self -judgment on multiple occasions over the past decade. However, the company’s program is still completely independent, although it distinguishes it as “full self -driving” (FSD). NHTSA is investigating several cases of accidents as it was claimed that independent driving in Tesla. Advances of Tesla FSD is turned off automatically before brokenness She only increased doubts that she is not ready for the road.
But then, Waymo is also struggling with the Public Opinion Court. For example, in a widely circulated video, Waymo cars were seen without a driver over and over again in a parking lot in San Francisco in the middle of the night.
Although the frequent increase was a nuisance for those who live around the parking lot, it raises concerns about whether Waymo – or, in this regard, any other company can reach a completely safe robotics. Recently, it recalled more than 1,200 cars in the United States after a simple collision.
Robotaxi companies publish huge losses
It remains to see how Robotaxi players work on a sustainable business model. Although Alphabet does not break the losses for Waymo, it is part of the “other bet” sector, whose loss in the quarterly operation in the stadium of one billion dollars. Luxury losses prompted many players to get out of the Robotaxi market.
Last year, General Motors announced that it will come out of the Robotaxi work after plowing billions of dollars in cash business. In October 2022, ARGO AI, a self -driving start -up company, closed from Ford and Volkswagen. Ford wrote its investments in the company and assigned a non -cash fee of $ 2.7 billion.
During Alphabet’s Q1 profit call, in response to a question about the long -term strategic vision of Waymo, the CEO of Sundar Pichai highlighted that the company will focus on partners to provide service, referring to the partnership with Uber and Moove. He said that the expansion of Waymo will require “a successful environmental system for partners, and we cannot do so.”
Pichai, however, a hybrid model of Waymo also indicated that some fleet has. “There is a future option about personal ownership as well,” Alphabet CEO said during the profit call.
Waymo against Tesla
Meanwhile, with the launch of Tesla in Austin, it will be a direct battle with Waymo, as the company also provides a service to the city in partnership with Uber. While Waymo was on the road for some time, Tesla had the advantage of having a fleet of cars along with independent programs.
However, the launch comes at a time when Tesla faces a lot of reaction to the political activities of musk. The reverse reaction affected the sales of Tesla with the decrease in deliveries in the first year in the past year. However, it remains to see whether the company’s Robotaxi service is also struggling with the reverse reaction like Tesla cars.
