Nearly a year after launching its robotaxi service in Texas, Tesla has just 42 vehicles on the road, compared with Waymo’s fleet of 577.
The figures come from newly available records on the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles website, which were disclosed as part of a new state authorization process for autonomous-vehicle companies that took effect on Thursday.
The records show Tesla has a smaller Texas fleet than other autonomous-vehicle operators, including Avride, which has 317 vehicles, and Nuro, which has 47.
Tesla launched a pilot of its robotaxi service in the state last June, initially offering rides to a limited group of invited users in Austin. Though the vehicles are intended to be fully self-driving, the company kept employees in the front passenger seat as an added safety measure.
In January, Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s vice president of AI software, said that some of its robotaxis in Austin have begun operating without a human chaperone.
“Starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader robotaxi fleet with safety monitors, and the ratio will increase over time,” he wrote on X.
Beyond Austin, Tesla says on its website that its robotaxi service is available in parts of Dallas and Houston.
In contrast, Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving unit, launched its own driverless service in Austin through a partnership with Uber in March 2025.
Waymo’s Texas service also extends to Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, though it temporarily suspended rides in those cities in the past month amid concerns about how its vehicles respond to flooded roads.
Read the full article here
