John Krafcik, former Waymo CEO and Board member of Rivian’s Nominating & Governance Committee, bashed on Sunday Tesla‘s Robotaxi service, saying the company has not yet launched one.
While telling Business Insider that he’s not interested in trying Tesla Robotaxis, Krafcik commented on the ride-hailing service the Elon Musk-led company kicked off in the Bay are on the last day of July.
“If they were striving to re-create today’s Bay Area Uber experience, looks like they’ve absolutely nailed it,” Krafcik stated.
John Krafcik led Waymo, Google’s autonomous driving company, between 2015 and 2021.
Two years ago, the MIT-alumnus mechanical engineer joined Rivian‘s Board of Directors, where he currently serves as the Chair of the Nominating & Governance Committee.
By then, he stated that he believes “the company will have a major impact on the future of transportation.”
In the same e-mail regarding the Elon Musk-led company, Krafcik added, “Please let me know when Tesla launches a robotaxi — I’m still waiting. It’s (rather obviously) not a robotaxi if there’s an employee inside the car.”
Unlike Tesla’s robotaxi service in Austin launched in late June, the company’s ride-hailing service introduced last month in the Bay Area includes a safety monitor in the driver seat.
This makes it similar to other ride-hailing services where the driver owns a Tesla and uses the Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature — like Uber.
Waymo currently offers ride-hailing services in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, in California, and in Phoenix, Arizona.
The Alphabet subsidiary has partnered with Uber to operate in Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia.
According to a Business Insider report over the weekend, since Waymo and Uber partnered in June to offer driverless rides in Atlanta, customers said they have repeatedly canceled rides with human drivers to get matched with a robotaxi.
Waymo plans to expand to Washington DC next year. It has announced late last month that it will be arriving to Dallas, in Texas, where it has also began testing.
Earlier this month, Tesla was spotted testing its Robotaxi in Miami, Florida, weeks after Elon Musk confirmed that the city is on the company’s expansion plans. Waymo announced expansion to Florida in late 2024.
According to Musk, the robotaxi service will open to the general public in Austin next month as the company awaits regulatory approval to operate the system in additional states.
As of last week, Tesla has reportedly secured approval to operate its driverless taxi service across Texas, becoming one of the first companies to obtain formal authorisation under the state’s new autonomous vehicle regime.
In the latest earnings call in late July, Musk said it expects the service to be expanded to “probably half of the population of the US by the end of the year.”
