Tesla and Waymo: Robotaxi competition set to heat up in 2026

Let's talk about robo taxis, because you think that 2026 can actually be a big year for one of Tesla's biggest competitors. And that's Google's Waymo. So break down, why is 2026 going to be such a big year? You know, starting off anecdotally, right, I was just in Austin, Texas for the for the holidays, and they are everywhere. Waymos are everywhere, driving people off, picking people up. People are using them. It's easy. I must have seen about a hundred and I saw one Tesla robo taxi, right now. Hundreds, though. That's unlike what you're seeing here in the Northeast. Well, not yet. Right. So and then they've been in L.A. I was in L.A. this past summer. They're all over L.A. So they've really grown in the spots that they're actually operating, which is San Francisco, Phoenix, L.A., Austin and Atlanta. Right. They're operating these areas without safety drivers completely. There's no one in the car. It's just an empty car driving around. So they're actually doing it and they're and they're charging for it. They're going to in 2026, expand to Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Orlando, with full service expected in the early 2026. And they're testing in Detroit, D.C., Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and St. Louis, even New York City, London and Tokyo. They're testing there. We'll see if that happens. But, you know, very deep, deeply populated urban areas. That's really tough for, excuse me, a robo taxi. So that's happening now by the numbers right at the end of this year. Waymo is at 250,000 trips a week, right? Wow. They want to do and start in 20 million for the entire time they've been operating. They want to do a million rides a week now by the end of the year and the next year. So that's four times. I mean, if the if the deployments go well now, you mentioned can they do it? That's a good question, because they have to increase production of their cars. They're building their their EVs. But the Jaguar I-PACE is in the Zika Chinese model. But that costs money and they don't have Tesla's ability to just crank out cars, right? So that's a potential headwind. Secondly, what about regulations and safety? You know, sometimes so many municipalities don't want to have that or you have a big sort of safety issue like like Cruz did in San Francisco. And that just knocks them out of the game. So those are the headwinds that they're facing. But that aside, 2026 could be a big year for them. Yeah. And you did mention your story that's now on Yahoo Finance's site that Tesla operates its ride hailing service with safety occupants still. And they're only in Austin and San Francisco. And that's since mid 2025. So it seems like even though there was so much excitement, especially around June for Tesla's Robotaxis, it seems like they're behind the game compared to Google's Waymo. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the number of vehicles is actually pretty low, too, right? Compared to what Waymo is doing. Now, Tesla says they're going to expand to Las Vegas. I'm sorry. It's Nevada and then also Phoenix. That's the next the next spot for them. And then people like Ives think that's going to be 30 more markets in the next year. I think that's overly optimistic because you haven't even heard what the next markets are. They haven't even pulled a state driver out of the in Austin and San Francisco yet. So a lot of big ifs there. But of course, that's the sort of the big payoff if they actually do it. Right. What about Suzanne Ives? Always bullish on Tesla, though. Professor Marian, thank you so much for joining me in studio. Appreciate it.