Tesla's Austin Robotaxi Project Is Smaller Than Elon Musk's Claims: Report

Tesla Inc.'s (NASDAQ:TSLA) pilot Robotaxi operations' scale in Austin could reportedly be smaller than what CEO Elon Musk has claimed.

Tesla Robotaxi Tracker

An engineering student at Texas A&M University has reverse-engineered the official Tesla Robotaxi app to track the service's availability, Electrek reported on Monday. The tracker details 32 Tesla Model Ys used in the Robotaxi network in Austin, which is far from Musk's earlier claims of having 1000 Robotaxis in Austin.

Tesla didn’t immediately respond to Benzinga‘s request for comment.

The student also shared that there could be over "1-5 [Robotaxis] out at a time," after he spoke to a person who had recorded videos and researched the depot in Austin. The tracker showcased that the service was unavailable for approximately 60% of the time. The average wait time on the tracker is currently 14 minutes in Austin.

The tracker data could point towards the service not being as widespread as its rivals. For comparison, the tracker showcases over 63 vehicles belonging to Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Waymo being discovered in Austin, more than double the size of Tesla's fleet.

Tesla Tests Driverless Robotaxi

The news comes as Tesla has been testing driverless operations of its Robotaxi in Austin, which was confirmed by Musk. The testing operations could provide a major boost to the company's pursuit of achieving driverless operations in the city by the end of the year.

A Tesla Cybercab was also spotted testing in Austin recently, though it wasn't clear if the car was being driven by a human driver or if it was operating autonomously.

Waymo's Progress

Meanwhile, Waymo has recorded significant progress in the Robotaxi sector. Investor Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management shared that if the competition between Waymo and Tesla Robotaxis were a basketball game, "Waymo would be up 50–2."

Waymo recently reached the 450,000 weekly rides milestone, while sharing that the company has recorded over 14 million paid Robotaxi rides in the year 2025. Waymo has an estimated fleet size of about 2,500 vehicles.

Uber, Lyft Introduce Apollo Go Robotaxis In London

Elsewhere, Ride-hailing giants Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE:UBER) and Lyft Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT) have announced a partnership with Chinese tech giant Baidu Inc.'s (NASDAQ:BIDU) Robotaxi company Apollo Go. The companies plan on launching the service in London sometime next year.

Apollo Go earlier announced that it had reached the 250,000 paid Robotaxi rides per week mark, as well as sharing that its fleet had logged over 140 million driverless miles.

Tesla scores well on the Momentum metric, while offering satisfactory Growth and Quality, but poor Value. It also has a favorable price trend in the Short, Medium and Long term. For more such insights, sign up for Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings today!

Price Action: According to Benzinga Pro data, TSLA jumped 1.56% to $488.73 at market close. It further surged 0.26% to $489.99 during the after-hours session.

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