Google-owned Waymo’s former CEO has responded to the remarks made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk about the self-driving car project during the company’s recent earnings call about Waymo's expensive sensor suite and its approach to autonomous driving. In a sharp rebuttal, John Krafcik – who led Waymo from 2015 to 2021 – said that Tesla has yet to demonstrate any real-world competitive presence in the robotaxi market. Musk projected a rapid expansion to “millions” of fully autonomous Teslas by the second half of next year.
“Tesla has never competed with Waymo — they've never sold a robotaxi ride to a public rider, but they've sold a lot of cars,” Krafcik said in an email to Business Insider.
“And although Tesla hopes to compete with Waymo someday, they've failed utterly and completely at this for each of the 10 years they've been talking about it,” he added.
Musk informed the investors that the initial “pilot” rollout in Austin this June will consist of 10 to 20 robotaxis, which will be Tesla Model Y cars. He also claimed that Tesla will have a market-share domination of “99% or something ridiculous.”
What Musk said during earnings call
Musk touted Tesla’s camera-based, “generalised” AI approach as superior to Waymo's lidar-heavy, pre-mapped strategy, claiming it would lead to lower costs and higher production volumes.
“The issue with Waymo's cars is it costs way more money,” Musk said.
While Tesla is said to adapt to various driving environments without the need of pre-mapping a particular region, Waymo maps out a city with its cars before deploying a robotaxi service.
Krafcik dismissed Musk’s cost arguments, emphasising the importance of safety. He argued that the long-term cost of sensors is “trivial” compared to the “massive quantifiable safety benefits” they provide.
Krafcik also cast doubt on Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology, which is central to its robotaxi vision. Despite Tesla's claims and recent previews of its robotaxi app, he pointed to the lack of a fully autonomous, publicly available service.
“Well, after 10 years of undelivered promises, it seems pretty rational for those watching to be data- and evidence-driven,” Krafcik said.
“There's still a lot of promises, still no Tesla liability for FSD driving performance, and still no universal robotaxi service,” he added, while noting that Tesla's FSD has improved but stressed that this does not equate to a proven, safe and truly autonomous robotaxi service.
“Tesla has never competed with Waymo — they've never sold a robotaxi ride to a public rider, but they've sold a lot of cars,” Krafcik said in an email to Business Insider.
“And although Tesla hopes to compete with Waymo someday, they've failed utterly and completely at this for each of the 10 years they've been talking about it,” he added.
Musk informed the investors that the initial “pilot” rollout in Austin this June will consist of 10 to 20 robotaxis, which will be Tesla Model Y cars. He also claimed that Tesla will have a market-share domination of “99% or something ridiculous.”
What Musk said during earnings call
Musk touted Tesla’s camera-based, “generalised” AI approach as superior to Waymo's lidar-heavy, pre-mapped strategy, claiming it would lead to lower costs and higher production volumes.
“The issue with Waymo's cars is it costs way more money,” Musk said.
While Tesla is said to adapt to various driving environments without the need of pre-mapping a particular region, Waymo maps out a city with its cars before deploying a robotaxi service.
Krafcik dismissed Musk’s cost arguments, emphasising the importance of safety. He argued that the long-term cost of sensors is “trivial” compared to the “massive quantifiable safety benefits” they provide.
Krafcik also cast doubt on Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology, which is central to its robotaxi vision. Despite Tesla's claims and recent previews of its robotaxi app, he pointed to the lack of a fully autonomous, publicly available service.
“Well, after 10 years of undelivered promises, it seems pretty rational for those watching to be data- and evidence-driven,” Krafcik said.
“There's still a lot of promises, still no Tesla liability for FSD driving performance, and still no universal robotaxi service,” he added, while noting that Tesla's FSD has improved but stressed that this does not equate to a proven, safe and truly autonomous robotaxi service.
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