With TSLA Down 40% And Investors Stuck Waiting on Promises... Waymo Just Hit Their 4th Robotaxi City

Remember when everyone and their cousin was foaming at the mouth to buy Tesla shares if they ever dipped below $300? The whole “I'm backing up the truck” crowd is now sitting in stunned silence as TSLA continues its gravity experiment.

Anyways, Tesla stock is down 40% since its all-time high in December, and investors are still out here trying to find the bottom like they’re deep-sea diving without a flashlight. But over in Austin (home to some of the best brisket and worst traffic in America) Waymo just rolled up to the future with actual robotaxis. And they’re doing it through Uber, of all companies. Yes, the same Uber that once thought autonomous cars were a good idea before realizing they’d rather not deal with lawsuits and fiery wrecks.

Waymo, the Google-backed autonomous driving company, has officially launched its robotaxi service in Austin. And in case you thought this was just a quiet test run, they’re rolling it out right before SXSW (basically the Coachella for startups), meaning 300,000 tech bros and festival-goers are about to experience driverless Ubers between overpriced coffee shops and secret after-parties.

Don’t forget, Waymo is already handling 200,000+ paid trips per week in Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Now, they’re bringing their fleet of Jaguar I-PACE electric robotaxis to Austin, covering a 37-square-mile area that includes downtown, Hyde Park, and Montopolis. Riders hailing an UberX, Uber Comfort, Uber Green, or Uber Comfort Electric might just get paired with a Waymo instead of a human driver. And before you ask… no, you don’t have to tip the car.

This can’t be a good look for Tesla or their CEO who seems to always be crying wolf. While Waymo is out here running actual driverless taxis, Tesla is still in the “promise phase.” Musk has been hyping up Tesla’s CyberCab, but the company still doesn’t produce them. Instead, Tesla’s current self-driving tech requires a human driver to be ready to intervene at any moment… which kind of defeats the purpose of calling it “full self-driving.”

To make things even more awkward, Tesla promised to launch its own driverless rideshare service in Austin this June. But based on Musk’s track record with timelines, we should probably pencil that in for “maybe 2027, if we’re lucky.” On the other hand, Waymo is already there, actually making money.

While Tesla bulls are still waiting for the moment to jump in, Waymo has quietly positioned itself as the leader in autonomous ride-hailing. This isn’t some niche play either… Waymo and Uber are scaling up across Austin, Phoenix, and soon Atlanta, and you can bet your bottom dollar (please don’t) Google’s deep pockets are going to keep the pressure on.

Tesla fans might want to consider that while they were busy waiting for the perfect buy-in price, the self-driving revolution didn’t wait for them.

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Stock.News has positions in Tesla, Google, and Uber.