Tesla has scaled its California “Robotaxi” program at a lightning-fast pace.
To date, the automaker has registered 1,655 vehicles for its ride-hailing service in the state, a spokesperson from the California Public Utilities Commission told Business Insider. The company has registered 798 drivers, the spokesperson said.
That’s up from 28 cars and 128 drivers in August, when the service launched, according to the CPUC.
The vehicle number reflects car that have been approved for use, not the actual operational fleet number. The spokesperson also said the carmaker isn’t required to update the state as it adds new drivers, which means the current number could be higher.
By comparison, Waymo told Business Insider it has more than 1,000 vehicles operating in its autonomous fleet in the region. According to the CPUC, Waymo has 1,955 vehicles registered in the state.
The Alphabet-backed autonomous vehicle company began offering driverless rides for select members of the public in 2023.
The agency said Zoox has 229 registered vehicles. Zoox, which launched in San Francisco in November, told Business Insider that it has 50 vehicles active in its fleet between San Francisco and Las Vegas. Zoox and Waymo run fully autonomously.
A spokesperson for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
Last year, Tesla registered more than 220 test drivers and 100 vehicles with the California Department of Motor Vehicles for a permit to test its self-driving software with a test driver.
Tesla’s “Robotaxi” isn’t registered as an autonomous vehicle service in California, which maintains some of the strictest AV regulations in the country. The company has not applied for a driverless testing permit, a DMV representative told Business Insider.
The company’s permit from the CPUC allows it to provide transportation services to employees and some members of the public. A separate permit is required to transport passengers using an autonomous vehicle.
Some users have complained on social media of long wait times since the company launched the Robotaxi app to the public in September. Tesla initially started operating the service with a small group of early access users; as access expanded, wait times have increased, with some users reporting on social media wait times as long as 40 minutes.
Business Insider’s Alistair Barr said that at times recently he’s been unable to secure a ride due to a lack of inventory during peak commuting hours. On off hours, he’s seen wait times around ten minutes, he said.
Tesla is ramping up driver staffing. The company has circulated flyers in its California factories offering hourly employees extra pay to help operate its network.
In Austin, where Elon Musk has said Tesla recently began testing its vehicles without drivers or safety operators, it’s unclear how many cars the company has running in the service. Tesla is not required to submit these numbers to Austin, a spokesperson for the transportation department said.
Musk said during an appearance in the “All In” podcast in October that Tesla planned to have around 500 vehicles running in Austin by the end of the year.
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