Former Waymo CEO mocked Tesla’s robotaxis

Tesla has unveiled a ride service in San Francisco called Robotaxi, but its “robotization” is questionable. John Krafcik, former Waymo CEO and a key figure in the autonomous transportation industry, has said that if a company employee is in the car, it can’t be considered a full-fledged robotaxi.

Tesla’s service is invitation-only for now. The company’s electric cars carry passengers, but an “employee observer” is necessarily behind the wheel. The reason is regulatory restrictions: Tesla has not yet received the necessary licenses from the California DMV to test and operate fully unmanned vehicles.

In Austin, where the rules are more lenient, a company employee sits in the passenger seat rather than behind the wheel, but a human still stays in the cabin. “If there’s an employee sitting in the car, it’s obviously not a robotaxi,” Krafcik emphasized.

The crux of the dispute is in the definition of autonomy. According to SAE’s classification, only levels 4 and 5 mean full-fledged unmanned driving without human involvement. Tesla does not yet have approvals for tests above Level 2-3.

Krafcik noted that Waymo was running an “early program” back in 2017 with a limited group of passengers and observer drivers, but didn’t call it a “robotaxi.” Tesla should have followed the same transparency, he said.

In comparison, Waymo has already been providing fully unmanned commercial rides in Phoenix since late 2020, and later expanded operations to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin. It now has a fleet of more than 1,500 driverless electric cars.