Calling Tesla investors risk tolerant is overly kind. Waymo vehicles might cost a lot, but they work, and Waymo as a business is in commerce. Waymo's real competitors are two or three Chinese companies that currently have fewer vehicles on the road than Waymo, they all use a sensor suite comparable to that on the Waymo vehicles, and one reason why they can't scale as fast as Waymo is likely that they need a lot more supervision than Waymo's fleet.
Two of the three leading Chinese companies are affiliated with large internet platform companies. Those internet platform companies have detailed geospatial data for reasons apart from their robotaxis.
Tesla isn't just behind Waymo. They are in fifth place and an outlier technologically.
All three leading robotaxi companies operating in China are in commerce without "safety" drivers. Zoox has no safety drivers, but being in commerce is debatable. so 5th or 6th place for GigaTaxi or whatever it is called.
> they all use a sensor suite comparable to that on the Waymo vehicles
Can we stop delusion that it's more sensors that's needed. Self driving is 95% about AI models that drive the car. CommaAI pulls it off with 5W computer and a single camera.
Two of the three leading Chinese companies are affiliated with large internet platform companies. Those internet platform companies have detailed geospatial data for reasons apart from their robotaxis.
Tesla isn't just behind Waymo. They are in fifth place and an outlier technologically.