Self-Driving Cars: The Race Between Waymo and Tesla

In the race to dominate the self-driving car market, two big players are going head-to-head: Waymo and Tesla. Waymo, a part of Alphabet, has been working on this tech for over 10 years and has already driven over 100 million miles without a driver. Tesla, on the other hand, has been promising a future where your car can drive itself and even make money for you while you sleep. In Austin, Texas, the competition is heating up. Tesla finally launched its robotaxi service in late June, but it's only available to a select group of people. Waymo, meanwhile, has doubled its service area in Austin and teamed up with Uber, making it easy for anyone to hail a ride. Waymo's service area is also much larger than Tesla's. Waymo has been playing the long game. It already offers robotaxi services in several cities and has plans to expand to even more places. Tesla, on the other hand, is starting from scratch. It has fewer cars on the road and is still testing its technology in limited areas. The two companies also have different approaches to the tech. Waymo uses lidar sensors and high-definition maps, focusing on safety. Tesla relies on cameras and neural networks, aiming for a cheaper and faster solution. This difference is clear in the user experience: Waymo offers fully driverless rides now, while Tesla's vision is for personal cars to double as taxis. For now, Waymo is ahead in the race. Its service areas are larger, its rides are fully driverless and open to the public, and it's expanding quickly. Tesla, on the other hand, is still in the testing phase, with limited access and many challenges to overcome.