Sundar Pichai Names Tesla As Top Competitor To Alphabet's Waymo In Autonomous Driving Race

Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL CEO Sundar Pichai named Tesla Inc TSLA as the main competitor to its autonomous driving unit Waymo in an interview earlier this month.

What Happened: Pichai said at The New York Times DealBook summit on Dec. 4 that Waymo aims to be in 10 cities in the U.S. next year. The company will be in six or seven cities by the end of the year and all expansion is guided by safety and metrics, he said.

Talking about competition, Pichai said that EV giant Tesla Inc is making “amazing progress” too.

“I think obviously Tesla is a leader in the space. It looks to me like Tesla and Waymo are the top two,” Pichai said.

Waymo is currently providing autonomous rides to the public in Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Earlier this month, Waymo said that it is looking to open autonomous rides to people in Miami, Florida as well in 2026.

Tesla’s Autonomy Dreams: Musk said during Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call that the company expects to start a ride-hail service in Texas and California starting next year, subject to regulatory approval, with self-driving Model 3 and Model Y vehicles equipped with future versions of its full self-driving (FSD) driver assistance technology. While FSD currently requires active driver supervision, Musk and Tesla are hopeful that it can enable autonomous driving with future updates.

However, the vehicles might not all operate as driverless robotaxis initially in California and Texas but with a driver as some states demand it until the company touches certain milestones in terms of miles and hours driven, the company then said.

However, Musk also expressed confidence about the company operating driverless paid rides sometime next year.

In October, Tesla also unveiled two products – a two-seater Cybercab and a 20-seater Robovan with no steering wheels or pedals. The Cybercab, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said, will enter production "before 2027."

Fallen Rival: Last week, General Motors said that it will no longer fund Cruise‘s robotaxi development but will instead combine the majority-owned unit into its technical teams. The robotaxi development work needs considerable time and resources to scale, GM reasoned, while adding that the robotaxi market is getting increasingly competitive

GM will now focus on developing its driver assistance technology called Super Cruise which requires active driver supervision, the company said.

Cruise, until late last year, was a major robotaxi player in the U.S. in the leagues of Waymo.

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Photos courtesy: Tesla and Shutterstock