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Deepwater Asset Management’s Gene Munster suggested Tesla Inc. could ultimately pose a major competitive threat to Alphabet Inc.-backed Waymo after the automaker’s AI chief outlined a future in which Tesla activates Robotaxi service across entire states rather than expanding city by city.
Munster Sees Statewide Scale Threatening Waymo
“Ashok Elluswamy, VP of AI Software from $TSLA says eventually Robotaxi will turn on entire states at a time,” Munster wrote on X. “The message from the company on Robotaxi is they’re doing what they said they would. Keep it safe, learn, and reading between the lines, they think they can eventually drop a bomb on Waymo.”
Ashok Elluswamy, VP of AI Software from $TSLA says eventually Robotaxi will turn on entire states at a time.
The message from the company on Robotaxi is they’re doing what they said they would. Keep it safe, learn, and reading between the lines, they think they can eventually…
— Gene Munster (@munster_gene) July 22, 2026
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Elluswamy told investors during Tesla’s second-quarter call that launching in new cities now requires “relatively less effort.”
“We expect that the time to launch to a new city will continue to trend towards zero, towards an end where we operate in entire states as a whole instead of going city by city,” he said.
Tesla Details Robotaxi Expansion And Cybercab Progress
Tesla has expanded from its June 2025 Austin launch into Dallas and Houston, followed by Miami, Orlando and Tampa. It also runs supervised service in California’s San Francisco Bay Area. Reuters said Tesla uses cameras and AI software, unlike Waymo, which also uses lidar.
Elluswamy said Tesla had logged more than 380,000 unsupervised Robotaxi miles across six cities and was increasing weekly mileage at a double-digit rate. Early Full Self-Driving V15 software already powers the fleet, with roughly 40% of seven planned improvement tracks integrated, he said.
Tesla has also begun Cybercab production at Giga Texas, although executives did not disclose production or fleet volumes. The purpose-built vehicle has no steering wheel or pedals.
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Waymo Scale Tempers Tesla’s Ambitions
CEO Elon Musk tempered the expansion narrative with a safety warning. “Our goals are very ambitious for robotaxi, but we do need to be cautious about causing any accidents or causing any harm to anyone,” he said.
Waymo remains the scale leader, complicating Munster’s bullish reading. The Alphabet unit was providing more than 400,000 weekly trips across 10 major metropolitan markets earlier this year and aims to exceed 1 million weekly paid rides by year-end. Meanwhile, Tesla’s unsupervised robotaxi fleet has reportedly shrunk to roughly 30 vehicles, including Austin, Houston and Dallas.
According to Benzinga’s Edge Rankings, Tesla stock is in the 62nd percentile for quality and the 88th percentile for growth, reflecting its strong performance in both areas.
Image via Shutterstock
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