A Tesla Bull Spends A Day Testing Waymo In Phoenix

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Final Up to date on: sixth April 2025, 10:56 pm

I examined Waymo’s automated taxis throughout a Phoenix trip. I discovered Waymo’s service similar to Uber’s/Lyft’s, barely cheaper, and user-friendly, regardless of minor pickup inconveniences. Waymo’s driving matched Tesla FSD V13’s greatest efficiency—assured but cautious—however excelled as a client expertise, permitting passengers to calm down with out supervising the automobile. Tesla FSD, whereas superior, calls for fixed consideration, rising psychological stress in cities. I famous Waymo’s LiDAR and HD map critiques from Tesla followers are overstated, as prices drop and main cities are prioritized. I concluded it’s too early to declare a winner, with Tesla’s upcoming V14 and robotaxi plans nonetheless unproven.

My Journey To Phoenix

I lately took a trip journey to the Grand Canyon and Utah and flew into Phoenix a day early simply to experience round in Waymo automated taxis (I did take one extraordinarily troublesome hike too). I’ve heard for years from Tesla bulls that Waymo was far inferior to Tesla’s Full Self Driving (FSD), which I exploit on daily basis on both {hardware} 3 or 4. I wished to guage for myself what I considered the service from a client standpoint. It’s tougher to evaluate from an investor standpoint since we don’t know that a lot about Waymo’s current or future prices.

Historically, Tesla followers have criticized Waymo for:

1. Having costly vehicles needing LiDAR. Definitely, LiDAR is pricey at present, however with costs declining as competitors and quantity will increase, I don’t assume this can be a main drawback.
2. Needing HD maps of the realm, to allow them to’t simply drive wherever on this planet like Tesla FSD can (it might not be allowed, however it technically can). I view this as principally a distinction with out a vital distinction. Many of the market worth of a taxi service is within the main cities and it isn’t that arduous for Waymo to create HD maps for the most important cities. Contemplating that Tesla can also be planning to solely roll out to 2 cities initially, this looks like the “pot calling the kettle black,” or a type of hypocrisy for criticizing the competitors for one thing they’re additionally doing (rolling out metropolis by metropolis).
3. Having autos which can be extra expensive to construct and gas than Tesla’s Robotaxi. This will have some reality to it, however Waymo can also be engaged on extra reasonably priced and environment friendly autos. I feel it’s method too early to declare a winner.

Name A Taxi

Impressions From The 5 Rides I Took

The drive high quality from Waymo appeared to be about the identical as the nice drives I do on Tesla’s FSD V13. It was assured in its navigation, however appropriately cautious round bicycles and pedestrians. It was extra superior in that it is aware of the best way to cease and choose individuals up and drop them off, however I don’t assume that will probably be powerful for Tesla to study, however it should take time. I did discover that generally it wouldn’t come choose you up on the location you might be at. That could possibly be due to native legal guidelines proscribing pickup in sure locations, or it could possibly be to optimize the routes. Typically I needed to stroll 5 minutes to the pickup spot.

Conclusion

The most important factor I noticed after using within the Waymo for even a couple of minutes is how significantly better it’s than Tesla FSD. Though it doesn’t actually drive any higher than an excellent FSD experience, it’s a lot higher for the patron as a result of you may simply sit within the again and calm down. With Tesla’s FSD, you might be accountable each second for watching the automotive. That is no drawback on the interstate, however within the metropolis, it’s a number of psychological stress. Though I discover FSD to be much less aggravating than driving manually on the freeway, I discover it extra aggravating than simply driving a automotive within the metropolis. Why? As a result of I’ve to do much more with my thoughts. I’ve to evaluate what the most secure plan of action is at any time and I’ve to evaluate what the automotive is doing. Then I’ve a break up second to determine if they’re shut sufficient to one another or if what FSD is doing is harmful and I ought to disengage. That’s much more work than simply driving.

So, does this imply Waymo wins and Tesla loses? I don’t assume we will say that but. Tesla FSD has made a number of progress within the final 12 months, doubtless as a result of Tesla has an amazing quantity of compute and information. The massive query is whether or not the corporate’s technique will turn out to be safer than a human quickly. It definitely isn’t on my Tesla autos. However Tesla continues to point out confidence that they may begin service in Austin in June. Is their new V14 that significantly better than the V13 I exploit? Or is that this simply one other of Elon Musk’s aggressive predictions that disappoints? Individuals who went to the Cybertaxi occasion final 12 months assume Tesla actually has solved the Degree 5 autonomy problem. The query I’ve is: “if they have solved autonomy, why can’t I have that software since I paid for it years ago?”

Disclosure: I’m a shareholder in Tesla (TSLA), BYD (BYDDY), Nio (NIO), XPeng (XPEV), NextEra Power (NEP), and a number of other ARK ETFs. However I supply no funding recommendation of any kind right here.