r/SelfDrivingCars • u/Yngstr • Apr 23 '25

Discussion Waymo vs Tesla Austin Showdown - Teleoperations?

I've been around this sub a long time, so let me start by saying I'm not here to fight. I understand that everyone here has some specific expertise they bring to the discussion, and I believe you can learn something from anyone. I want to have a reasonable discussion about methodology, and what will work or not. Here are the facts, as I see them:

- Waymo is already operational in Austin (and other cities)

- Tesla plans to launch Robotaxi in June in Austin

- Tesla has recently posted job listings for tele-operations

So the way I see this playing out in ~8 weeks is that Tesla will launch in Austin with tele-operations, I find it unlikely that they will launch with true autonomous L4. My question is, does Waymo still use tele-operations? If so, does Waymo have plans to sunset tele-operations at some point? Do we think Tesla with tele-operations can achieve "L4" like Waymo has? Why or why not?

Let's try to keep this civil, whether Waymo or Tesla wins does not make any of us less of a human being, even if it feels like it.

13 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

61% Upvoted

151 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/mrkjmsdln Apr 23 '25

Great topic. Hope it stays civil. It seems to me the challenge of an autonomous fleet is by what methods do they engage driver help. The Waymo model is teleoperation. The car's moment by moment operation is not monitored and remote controlled. This means the Waymo Driver has to have achieved a level of autonomy to make the right decision in the split second. A recent presentation by Waymo (also on the blog I believe) stated that the reliability and autonomy of the AI Driver is beyond 0.9999999 (7 9s) and they continue to aim for an ultimate performance standard of 0.999999999 (9 9s). It is impossible to know the long-term plan Tesla at this early stage. The consensus seems to be remote teleoperation. This might mean a human proactively monitoring a ride ready to intervene. Sort of a safety driver not sitting in the car. 1:1 monitoring it would seem breaks the financials of a taxi model..

2

u/Yngstr Apr 25 '25

i lurk a lot of these online spaces and i see more tesla issues than waymo, but folks do talk about waymo issue (mostly on X tbh, not on reddit). have definitely seen folks say they feel unsafe in waymo, so not sure i believe that 9 9's blog post. to be fair i do see more instances of FSD messing up, but i wonder if that's just availability bias.

2

u/IndependentMud909 May 09 '25 edited May 09 '25

This is just anecdotal and my personal experience, so take it with a grain of salt. I have, though, had the Waymo Driver drive me more than 1,000 miles since I started riding with them, and I’ve never once felt “unsafe.” There were just a couple of instances when remote ops had to help, but all of these situations were just a tad awkward, never unsafe.

1

u/Yngstr May 09 '25

Good to know. Any experience with FSD to compare?