Elon Musk says Tesla’s Robotaxi race against Waymo “was never a real contest” after Tesla’s driverless fleet logged 438,000 miles in Austin in a single week, edging past Waymo’s 406,000 weekly average in the city.
📌 The Core Development
That’s one city, one week, and a Waymo figure that’s four months old. Across the US, Waymo still drives about seven times more driverless miles than Tesla every week.
The chart going around comes from Robotaxi Tracker , a community project that pulls driverless mileage from each company’s own reports: Tesla’s weekly Robotaxi safety report and Waymo’s quarterly Safety Impact data hub.
🔍 Background & Sector Context
Jason Scharf posted the Austin view on X with the comment that “the battle for Autonomous Austin might already be over.” Musk replied overnight: “It was never a real contest.”
The Austin data is real –albeit with some caveats. In the week ending October 18, Tesla reported 438,000 miles with no safety monitor aboard in Austin, up 30% from the week before. Waymo averaged about 406,000 miles a week in Austin in the second quarter.
📊 Industry & Real-World Impact
But the tracker’s own caption explains the catch. Tesla’s figure is its latest week. Waymo’s is an average of April through June, because Waymo publishes about three months after each quarter ends. So Musk is comparing Tesla’s best week ever to Waymo’s spring.
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🔮 Strategic Outlook & What Lies Ahead
Waymo averaged 3.90 million rider-only miles per week in Q2 2026. Tesla did 558,000 miles in its best week. Waymo’s Phoenix, Bay Area, and Los Angeles markets each drive more miles per week on their own than Tesla’s entire network.
Cumulative numbers are even more lopsided. Waymo has logged 271.3 million rider-only miles since 2020, including 50.7 million in Q2 alone, as we covered when Waymo released its latest safety data . Tesla has 3.11 million driverless miles since January 22, 2026. Waymo drove more than that in a single week.
