One city, one week, and a lot of noise. Elon Musk replied on X early Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026 to a chart from the community site Robotaxi Tracker, saying Tesla's Austin race with Waymo "was never a real contest." He also wrote "Log curve in blue, exponential in red," EV reported.
The numbers
- Tesla, Austin: 438,000 miles with no safety monitor aboard in the week to Oct. 18, up 30% from the week before, from Tesla's Robotaxi safety report.
- Waymo, Austin: an average of 406,000 miles a week in Q2 (5.28 million for the quarter), from Waymo's Safety Impact data hub.
- All markets: Waymo averaged 3.90 million rider-only miles a week in Q2, about seven times Tesla's 558,000 in the week to Oct. 18.
- Cumulative: Tesla reports 3.11 million driverless miles since Jan. 22, 2026. Electrek put Waymo at 271.3 million rider-only miles since 2020.
The caveats
The comparison mixes periods: Tesla's latest week against Waymo's April-to-June average, because Waymo publishes about three months after each quarter ends. The companies also count differently. Per the tracker, Tesla's figures include miles where a remote operator assisted the car, while Waymo reports rider-only miles, EV noted.
Austin is about 79% of Tesla's weekly driverless miles, Electrek said, and the surge follows the Sept. 3 launch of public Cybercab rides there. Robotaxi Tracker counts 463 Cybercabs registered in Texas, 337 of them added in the last 30 days. Tesla Robotaxis still don't take highways; Waymo has run freeway rides in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles since November 2025, Electrek added.
