Pulling Ahead: Tesla Passes Waymo In Texas Robotaxi Registrations For The First Time

Tesla now has more robotaxis on the books in Texas than Waymo, the company that has run driverless rides in the state the longest.

The state's public roster of automated vehicles listed 1,302 cars under Tesla Robotaxi on Tuesday night, against 1,297 for Waymo, Sawyer Merritt reported on X. It is the first time Tesla has led the count. The overnight update added 20 more Model Ys and no new Cybercabs.

Tesla's list now holds 729 Model Ys and 573 Cybercabs, according to trackers that follow the roster, including Texas AV Tracker figures shared on X. The Model Y share has edged up to about 56 percent as Tesla adds the crossover in bulk while Cybercab registrations hold steady.

The pass came quickly. Tesla had 1,204 vehicles on the roster at the start of the month and sat 55 cars behind Waymo when CyberCab.news reported that milestone. The count rose to 1,282 by Monday and crossed Waymo's total a day later. Waymo was about 420 cars ahead as recently as 1 September, according to figures shared by roster watchers.

The registrations line up with a busy week on the ground. Tesla opened unsupervised Robotaxi rides in San Antonio on Monday, its eighth metro, and widened its Austin service area to about 443 square miles. In Austin, permits have also been filed for 16 private V4 Supercharger stalls for the Robotaxi fleet at Tesla's Pond Springs service centre on US-183, a post on X noted.

These are state filings, not a live count of cars carrying paying riders. Texas requires every vehicle a company runs commercially as an automated vehicle to be registered, and the list shows only the VIN and model, not which city a car serves or how many trips it has taken. Tesla has not published its own fleet number.

Still, the direction is clear. A fleet that barely registered in Texas over the summer now tops the state's longest-standing driverless operator, with nearly 600 purpose-built Cybercabs already on the list and Giga Texas clearing floor space to build more.