The Robotaxi Competition Is Heating Up Between Waymo, Tesla and Zoox

Forbes

The Alphabet Inc. unit entered its fifth major city on Tuesday, operating robotaxis in a partnership with Uber in a 65-square-mile portion of the Georgia capital.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2025/06/24/waymo-robotaxi-service-expands-to-atlanta/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, as Tesla begins Austin Robotaxi tests, Waymo's ride service expands to Atlanta.

00:09Waymo, the US leader in autonomous driving, began operating its Robotaxi service in Atlanta on

00:14Tuesday, entering its fifth major US city as it begins to significantly scale up its commercial

00:20operations. Just as in Austin, where Waymo began operating Robotaxis earlier this year,

00:26the company is partnering with Uber for both ride booking and vehicle service, including cleaning and

00:31repairs at depots for the fleet. The company said it's starting with quote dozens of vehicles in

00:37Atlanta and that the fleet will expand to hundreds over time. Initially, the service will be available

00:43in a 65 square mile zone in the central part of Georgia's capital city, spanning from downtown to

00:49the Buckhead and Capitol View neighborhoods. Waymo's latest launch comes as Elon Musk's Tesla

00:56began giving paid Robotaxi rides in Austin over the weekend for a small group of preselected

01:01shareholders and owners. The launch, which earned much publicity and a share price bump,

01:06included human safety monitors in the front seat and chase cars keeping close tabs on a dozen or so

01:12Model Ys, which were also tracked remotely. That's closer to the early stage testing Waymo and other

01:18autonomous tech companies have done for years, but which didn't charge people to ride along.

01:23The day after Tesla's launch, Barclays analyst Dan Levy said in a research note quote,

01:30Bulls will point to yesterday's event as the start of a new era for Tesla,

01:34one which bulls and believers have been awaiting for a long time. They see the tech working well

01:39with a clear path of scaling and point to Tesla now generating revenue on driverless rides as a

01:44critical milestone. We believe the much better question ahead is on the path of scaling,

01:49which we believe will be long, and we caution against over-optimism.

01:54The Dawn Project, a group created by software entrepreneur Dan O'Dowd that's critical of

01:59Musk's self-driving claims, tallied errors made by Tesla's Austin Robotaxi fleet on June 22nd.

02:06In one incident, it said, a vehicle quote, failed to complete a left turn and panicked, whipping the

02:11steering wheel back and forth. It then drove on the wrong side of the road, failed to correct itself,

02:16despite there being two open lanes for it to move into, and continued to drive down the wrong side

02:21of the road. In another video, a Tesla quote, phantom braked twice for a stationary police car.

02:29Others showed riders being left in the middle of the street after asking the cars they were in to

02:34pull over and let them out. Waymo's already operate with no human technicians on board in Los

02:40Angeles, Austin, and the Phoenix and San Francisco metro areas. The company plans to launch in Miami,

02:46and Washington DC next year, and is testing in multiple locations, including San Diego,

02:52Nashville, New York City, Las Vegas, and Tokyo. Before launching in Austin, the company said in

02:58April that it was booking more than 250,000 paid rides a week. With the additions of Austin and Atlanta,

03:04and recent expansions of its service area in Los Angeles and to more San Francisco Bay Area cities,

03:10it's likely up to at least 300,000 paid rides a week. Waymo doesn't disclose revenue yet,

03:15though Forbes estimates it likely booked $100 million of rides last year.

03:21Besides Tesla, its other primary rival is Amazon's Zoox, which plans to begin giving paid rides in its

03:27custom-designed robo-taxi late this year in Las Vegas. Rather than loading up existing vehicles with

03:34sensors and computers like Waymo has, Zoox's plan from the outset has revolved around creating a

03:40robo-taxi service with an electric model unlike any on the road, a small, van-like vehicle with no

03:46steering wheel, pedals, or mirrors. It has sliding doors reminiscent of transit trains, and it's designed

03:53as a bi-directional vehicle with an identical front and rear. The Zoox robo-taxi has a top speed of 75

04:00miles per hour, though for now it won't typically exceed 45 miles per hour on urban and suburban runs.

04:06It's also intended to operate for up to 16 hours per charge per day,

04:10and remain in service for at least 5 years and 100,000 miles.

04:16For full coverage, check out Alan Owensman's piece on Forbes.com.

04:21This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

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