Waymo dominates autonomous vehicle registrations as Tesla trails behind
Quick Answer
Waymo leads the autonomous vehicle sector in Texas with a significant number of robotaxi and self-driving truck registrations, according to a new law and AV tracker tool.
Quick Take
Waymo leads the autonomous vehicle sector in Texas with a significant number of robotaxi and self-driving truck registrations, according to a new law and AV tracker tool. Tesla, despite its prominence in the EV market, is trailing behind in this specific segment, highlighting the competitive landscape of autonomous driving technology.
Key Points
- Waymo has the highest number of robotaxi and self-driving truck registrations in Texas.
- Tesla's autonomous vehicle registrations are significantly lower than Waymo's.
- The new AV tracker tool provides detailed insights into the autonomous vehicle landscape.
- This trend may impact future investments in autonomous driving technologies.
- Texas is becoming a key battleground for autonomous vehicle deployment.
📖 Reader Mode
~3 min readWaymo has nearly 600 autonomous vehicles registered in Texas, a figure that far outpaces emerging competitors Avride, Nuro, Tesla, and Zoox, according to data available in a new website launched by the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles.
The automated vehicle tracker tool — part of a new law that requires AV companies to register with the DMV — gives the public the first accurate and easy-to-access accounting of how many autonomous vehicles are in Texas. The state law, which went into effect May 28, requires companies testing or deploying AVs in the state to share how many vehicles are in their fleets as well as other safety information.
It also shows just how wide the gap is between Waymo and rival Tesla — two companies offering commercial robotaxi services.
Alphabet-owned Waymo has registered 577 autonomous vehicles in Texas, followed by Avride with 317, and Nuro with 47. Tesla, which launched a robotaxi service in Austin last summer and has since said it has expanded to Dallas and Houston, has registered 42 autonomous vehicles. Other companies with registered autonomous vehicles in the state include Volkswagen subsidiary MOIA, which has a fleet of 12 electric, autonomous microbuses.
The size of an autonomous-vehicle fleet only reveals so much about where a company stands on the leaderboard. Many of these companies — Nuro and Zoox, for instance — are not operating commercially. Nor do these numbers track how many vehicles are actively being used. (Waymo, for instance, paused operations in some Texas cities earlier this month due to issues with how its vehicles operate around floods.)
But there’s no denying Waymo’s dominance in Texas — at least for now.
Over time, the tool should provide some measure of growth. Waymo launched its commercial service in Austin in March 2025 and has since expanded to Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.
The website also provides registration figures for other applications of autonomous vehicle tech, including self-driving trucks. Aurora, a publicly traded company that launched a commercial driverless trucking business in May 2025, has 91 self-driving trucks. Big rig competitors Kodiak AI and Waabi have 33 and 13 self-driving trucks, respectively. Gatik AI, a startup that focuses on self-driving mid-sized trucks, has 64 vehicles in its fleet.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
Kirsten Korosec is a reporter and editor who has covered the future of transportation from EVs and autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility and in-car tech for more than a decade. She is currently the transportation editor at TechCrunch and co-host of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. She is also co-founder and co-host of the podcast, “The Autonocast.” She previously wrote for Fortune, The Verge, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review and CBS Interactive.
You can contact or verify outreach from Kirsten by emailing kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at kkorosec.07 on Signal.
— Originally published at techcrunch.com
Want this in your inbox every morning?
Daily brief at your local 8am — bilingual EN/中文, free.
More from TechCrunch
See more →
OpenAI launches its new family of models with GPT-5.6
OpenAI has launched GPT-5.6, featuring three models: Sol, Terra, and Luna, with Sol being 54% more token efficient for coding tasks. The models excel in cybersecurity and enterprise applications, outperforming competitors like Anthropic's Fable in benchmarks. Pricing starts at $1 for Luna and goes up to $30 for Sol per million tokens.
