Waymo Grabs Nearly 250 More Square Miles of Driverless Turf as Musk Claims a Win in Austin

Waymo just redrew five of its maps in one go. The Alphabet robotaxi unit said Tuesday it will add nearly 250 square miles of driverless territory over the next week across Los Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area. Hours earlier, Elon Musk had told the internet the robotaxi race with Waymo "was never a real contest."

The timing is almost too neat, and the numbers are messier than either camp would like.

In a short post on its blog, Waymo listed the new ground without much ceremony. Los Angeles stretches down the coast to Torrance. Nashville reaches further south, to places like the zoo. Orlando nearly doubles its coverage in the east, with enhanced service downtown. San Diego heads north to La Jolla. The Bay Area picks up more of the south, including a new BART connection at Berryessa Station.

What Waymo left out is just as telling. According to Electrek, the company did not break out square mileage by city and did not say how many vehicles it is adding to cover the new ground.

Two of these markets are barely out of the gate. Electrek notes Waymo opened Nashville to public riders in April with a zone of about 60 square miles, and San Diego only went public on September 1 with roughly 50 square miles. Reaching La Jolla less than two months after launch is, in Electrek's words, a big jump. Axios San Diego adds a wrinkle: the city council there voted unanimously in September to request local control over autonomous taxi companies, including a ban on airport service.

Musk's scoreboard and the other one

Musk's remark was a reply on X to a chart from Robotaxi Tracker, a community project, showing Tesla's driverless miles in Austin passing Waymo's. Electrek says Tesla reported 438,000 driverless miles in Austin in the week ending October 18, against a Waymo average of about 406,000 a week in the city during the second quarter.

"It was never a real contest." Elon Musk, replying on X to the Austin mileage chart

Look closer and the chart has a catch, one the tracker itself flags. Tesla's number is its latest week. Waymo's is a quarterly average, because Waymo publishes its mileage about three months after each quarter ends. Electrek's verdict is that Musk is comparing Tesla's best week to Waymo's spring.

Zoom out to every market and the picture flips. Electrek says Waymo averaged 3.9 million rider-only miles per week in the second quarter of 2026, while Tesla's driverless fleet logged 558,000 miles in its latest reported week, mostly in Austin. That is roughly a 7x gap, per Electrek. The two companies also count differently. The tracker says Tesla's figures include miles where a remote operator assisted the car, while Waymo reports rider-only miles.

Then there is the map game, where Tesla is playing too. Electrek says Tesla stretched its Houston Robotaxi geofence to about 254 square miles this week, roughly what Waymo is adding across five cities. Robotaxi Tracker counts just 34 vehicles in Houston. A big map with a few dozen cars is a coverage claim, not a service, and nobody should confuse the two. Tesla's Austin Cybercab push has already drawn a federal safety probe, as we reported earlier.

Waymo has its own scale to answer for. Electrek says the company now operates in 15 US metros with more than 500,000 paid rides per week, after passing 1,400 square miles across 11 cities in May. It is also mapping Toronto for a 2028 launch. Electrek relays those figures from Waymo, which has not said how many cars sit behind them.

Here is the fair read. Tesla has real momentum in one city, and Musk is entitled to enjoy it. Austin is a snapshot, while 15 metros is a habit. Whether Waymo has enough cars for 250 new square miles, and whether officials like San Diego's stay patient, is still unanswered.