Tesla has registered a driverless robotaxi fleet in Texas that is less than one-tenth the size of its competitor Waymo's fleet.
The disparity suggests Tesla is struggling to scale its unsupervised ride-hailing service despite an aggressive public push into the autonomous vehicle market. The slower rollout may impact the company's ability to capture market share in major urban hubs.
Recent filings indicate Tesla registered 42 automated vehicles in Texas [1]. However, other tracking data suggests the actual number of operating vehicles is significantly lower. Some reports state the unsupervised fleet shrank to roughly 20 vehicles [2], while other trackers placed the total at 34 vehicles [3]. Another source noted the count reached 33 unsupervised vehicles, though it suggested this number might be undercounted because hundreds of cars remain parked and ready [4].
Tesla launched its service in mid-2025, focusing operations in Austin, Dallas, and Houston [1, 2]. The company is now facing a gap in deployment speed compared to Waymo, which has established a much larger presence in the state.
Elon Musk said to investors that safety validation is what is slowing the rollout [2]. The company must meet specific safety requirements before it can expand the number of unsupervised vehicles on public roads.
The current fleet size remains a point of contention among analysts. While official filings show a higher number, the operational reality in Texas cities appears limited to a small handful of vehicles, a stark contrast to the scale of Waymo's existing infrastructure.
“Tesla has registered a driverless robotaxi fleet in Texas that is less than one-tenth the size of its competitor Waymo's fleet.”
The gap between Tesla's registered fleet and Waymo's operational scale highlights a fundamental difference in their approach to autonomy. While Waymo relies on high-fidelity sensors and mapped zones, Tesla's vision-only approach requires extensive safety validation to operate unsupervised. The limited number of vehicles in Texas suggests that Tesla is in a cautious testing phase rather than a full commercial expansion, which may delay its goal of creating a massive autonomous network.
