Tesla had 169 Cybercabs authorized for commercial service in Texas as of Friday, up from 45 at the vehicle’s Austin unveiling a month ago, per state records.
By the numbers: Texas Department of Motor Vehicles records show the Cybercab count rose from 45 to 169 in a month. Tesla’s Texas robotaxi fleet also includes 420 Model Y cars running its automated driving systems, which individual buyers cannot yet get.
- Alphabet’s Waymo had 1,154 autonomous vehicles authorized in Texas as of Friday, including 359 of its new Ojai models, and operates more than 4,000 driverless vehicles across 15 US markets.
Zoom in: Reviews from paying riders since the September 3 launch have been mixed. Complaints include long waits, pickups and drop-offs at the wrong spot, and trouble with the butterfly doors and the trunk, CNBC reported.
- The two-seat Cybercab ships with no steering wheel, pedals, mirrors or outside door handles.
The big picture: Waymo is running more than 500,000 paid rides a week and has logged 270 million fully autonomous commercial miles in the US, with launches announced for London, Tokyo and Munich.
Yes, but: Tesla’s core car business has posted consecutive annual revenue declines under pressure from BYD and Xiaomi. The stock is down 18% this year, the one megacap tech name in the red, though Friday’s better-than-expected third-quarter deliveries lifted it almost 5%.
What's next: Expansion beyond Austin faces a regulator as well as the engineering. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an audit query after launch to check federal safety compliance, and Tesla got an extension on its original September 30 deadline to answer.
Why it matters: Investors are paying for robotaxis to replace a shrinking car business, so fleet counts are now the scoreboard. On the only board that exists today, Tesla trails Waymo roughly seven to one in its own home state.
