Tesla is going all in to finish first in the robotaxi race
Lloyd Lee/BI
Welcome back to our Sunday edition, where we round up some of our top stories and take you inside our newsroom. This week, BI’s Polly Thompson took an inside look at how artificial intelligence is set to upend a pillar of the white-collar world: the Big Four.
On the agenda today:
But first: Tesla’s robotaxis are taking the wheel.
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Robin Marchant/Getty, Sean Gallup/Getty, Tyler Le/BI
I remain in awe of self-driving cars.
I took my first Waymo earlier this year in San Francisco. Like any newbie, I immediately pulled out my phone, recorded the ride, and then gleefully shared videos with friends and family.
The market for robotaxis is well beyond the shock and awe phase. For Tesla, the stakes are high to get it right.
The EV maker’s long-awaited autonomous ride-hailing service is expected to debut next month in Austin. It will join Waymo, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, which is already entrenched in San Francisco and expanding into other cities.
My BI colleagues Lloyd Lee and Alistair Barr tried to see which company offers the better self-driving experience: Tesla or Waymo. They test drove both, expecting the results of their not-so-scientific test to come down to minute details. (They couldn’t compare the robotaxi services because Tesla hasn’t launched its yet).
While the rides were mostly similar, the differentiator was Tesla running a red light at a complex intersection. It was an error too big to overlook. Waymo won the test.
Lloyd and Alistair’s story ricocheted around the internet and social media. On Tuesday, CNBC’s David Faber pressed Tesla CEO Elon Musk about it, particularly the Tesla running a red light.
Musk didn’t address specific details in BI’s reporting. Instead, he said Tesla’s robotaxis will be “geo-fenced” — meaning they will avoid some intersections and certain parts of Austin.
Waymo already uses geo-fencing. Its car avoided the intersection where the Tesla ran the red light, instead taking a route that was farther away and less time-efficient but perhaps safer to navigate, according to the BI story.
Tesla’s robotaxi plans come at a critical time for a brand that’s taken a hit from Musk’s work with the Trump administration. Overseas competition is also ramping up, and prices for used Teslas, including Cybertrucks, are falling.
The excitement around the robotaxis is helping, though. Tesla’s stock has risen about 40% since Musk talked up the robotaxi last month and signaled he was re-committing to Tesla and stepping back from DOGE.
We’ll stay all over this coverage for you, including the big debut.
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