Tesla's Robotaxi Spotted Without Driver, But Can It Catch Waymo's Breakneck Lead?

Elon Musk reacted Tuesday to the first public sighting of Tesla Inc.'s TSLA robotaxi prototype testing without a driver, calling it a "beautifully simple design."

The vehicle was spotted operating on public roads in Austin, Texas, featured in a post on X. A video shared by Sawyer Merritt showed the Model Y with Tesla's new "Robotaxi" wordmark on its side and no one in the driver's seat.

Musk posted his brief approval—"Beautifully simple design"—shortly after, sparking a flurry of responses. @Mr_Velyo replied, "This is beautifully 🇺🇸," while @MikeAnd00183888 wrote, "Love it!!" User @dunck14 added, "And so it begins."

Some questioned the vehicle's tech setup. "How did you hide all the lidars?" asked @LucilleChad, while @neirehebrd posed, "What happens if it malfunctions?"

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Accessibility and rollout timing also surfaced. "Any timeline for unsupervised driving in Canada?" asked @Aiemannzahabi. Meanwhile, @coyotered9 shared, "I've stopped driving because of a medical situation… would I be able to use the car without a driver's license?"

The post marked the first known public test of Tesla's robotaxi with no driver onboard.

Tesla's limited rollout arrives as another player continues accelerating at scale. Waymo's explosive growth in California has taken monthly ride volume from fewer than 100,000 a year ago to over 700,000 as of June 2025.

The company recently doubled its total paid rides to reach the 10 million milestone in just five months. It plans to double that figure again and hit 20 million by year-end.

Waymo's weekly ride volume now exceeds 250,000 trips across Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin. In California alone, completed rides jumped from 143,000 in May to more than 312,000 by August 2024.

Tesla's Austin pilot, launching June 12 with about 10 modified Model Y vehicles, marks its first move into live driverless service. The rollout arrives as Waymo prepares to test its AV taxis in new markets, including San Antonio, Houston and Orlando.

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Image created using artificial intelligence via Midjourney.