A side-by-side road test of Tesla and Waymo autonomous taxi services in Austin found the Alphabet unit’s robotaxi better prepared for fully driverless operations, underscoring the different technical and commercial challenges each company faces. In trials conducted by Business Insider on 16–17 July and published 15 Aug., a reporter completed five rides in Tesla’s pilot fleet of Model Y robotaxis—each staffed with an in-car safety monitor—and eight rides in Waymo’s Jaguar I-PACE vehicles dispatched through Uber. The Tesla vehicles required three remote or human interventions, including one incident in which the car began to enter a one-way street marked by “Do Not Enter” signs. Waymo completed all trips without a takeover. Both companies avoid highways for public passengers, but Waymo’s service, which operates more than 100 vehicles in Austin, matched pickup and drop-off points accurately and averaged about $10.69 per ride. Tesla’s invitation-only program reported pickup waits of up to 30 minutes and occasionally routed around its geofence, prompting remote assistance. Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has said the company aims to remove safety monitors and expand to roughly 1,000 robotaxis in Austin by year-end, a milestone investors view as critical for demonstrating unsupervised autonomy. The latest comparison suggests Tesla must still refine its software, while Waymo’s costlier lidar-based hardware is showing stronger real-world performance.