00:00 Speaker A
Let’s talk about robotaxis because you think that 2026 could actually be a big year for one of Tesla’s biggest competitors and that’s Google’s Waymo. So break down why is 2026 going to be such a big year?
00:10 Pras
You know, starting off anecdotally, right? I was just in Austin, Texas for the for the holidays and they are everywhere. Waymos are everywhere, dropping people off, picking people up.
00:20 Speaker A
People are using them. It’s easy.
00:21 Pras
Yeah, I must have seen about 100 and I saw one Tesla robotaxi, right?
00:25 Speaker A
Oh wow.
00:25 Pras
Now, now that’s that’s because
00:26 Speaker A
100 though. That’s that’s unlike what you’re seeing here in the northeast.
00:29 Pras
Well, well not yet, right? Um so so then and then they’ve been in LA. I was in LA this past summer, they’re all over LA. So they’ve really grown in the spots that they’re actually operating, which is San Francisco, Phoenix, LA, Austin, and Atlanta, right? They’re operating these areas without safety drivers. completely. there’s no one in the car. It’s just an empty car driving around. So, they’re actually doing it and they’re and they’re charging for it, right? Uh they’re going to in 2026 they’re going to expand to Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Orlando with full service expected in the early 2026, and they’re testing in Detroit, DC, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis.
01:05 Pras
even New York City, London and Tokyo, they’re testing there. We’ll see if that happens. But you know, very deep deeply populated urban areas that’s really tough for excuse me robotaxis. So, that’s happening.
01:18 Pras
Now, by the numbers. Uh right at the end of this year, Waymo was at 250,000 trips a week, right?
01:24 Speaker A
Wow.
01:25 Pras
They want to do an and sorry, and 20 million for the entire time they’ve been operating. They want to do million rides a week now by the end of the year.
01:31 Speaker A
Now and is this doable. Do you think they can do it?
01:32 Pras
So at the end of next year. So that’s four times.
01:34 Pras
I mean if if the if the deployments go well. Uh now you mentioned, can they do it? That’s a good question because they have to increase production on their cars. They’re building their their their EVs with the Jaguar I-PACE and the a Zeekr, Chinese model. But that costs money. And they don’t have Tesla’s ability to just crank out cars, right? So that’s a potential headwind. Uh secondly, what about regulations and safety? Uh you know, sometimes some many municipalities don’t want to have that. Or you have a big sort of safety issue like like Cruise did in San Francisco and that just knocks them out of the game. So those are some of the headwinds that they’re facing. But
02:04 Pras
that aside, 2026 could be a big year for them.
02:07 Speaker A
Yeah, and you did mention your story that’s now on Yahoo Finance’s site that Tesla operates its ridehailing service with safety occupants still. And they’re and only in Austin and San Francisco and that’s since mid 2025. So it seems like even though there was so much excitement especially around June for Tesla’s robotaxis, it seems like they’re behind the game compared to Google’s Waymo.
02:24 Pras
Yeah, yeah, I mean and and the number of vehicles is actually pretty low too, right, compared to what Waymo is doing. They now Tesla says they’re going to expand to to Las Vegas. I’m sorry, I’m sorry Nevada and then also Phoenix. That’s the next the next spots for them. Um and then people like Ives think that’s going to be 30 more markets by end of next year. I think that’s overly optimistic because we haven’t even heard what the next markets are. They haven’t even pulled a safe driver out of the in Austin and San Francisco yet. So, a lot of big ifs there, but of course that’s the sort of the big payoff if they actually do it.
02:47 Speaker A
Right. Wedbush’s Dan Ives always bullish on Tesla, though. Pras Subramanian, thank you so much for joining me in studio. Appreciate it.
02:51 Pras
Yeah. Thank you.
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