As Waymo tests driverless taxi rides in Las Vegas, another competitor has entered the neon nightlife of the city of excess: Zoox. This Amazon brand brings autonomous vehicles (without steering wheels) to Las Vegas, standing out amongst the city’s backed-up traffic with its boxy, futuristic design.
Meanwhile, Tesla continues to do what it does best: overpromise and underdeliver.
The Embarrassing Reality Behind Tesla’s “Robotaxi”
While Zoox operates truly driverless vehicles, Tesla’s so-called robotaxi service is nothing more than supervised full self-driving with Tesla employees babysitting the cars. The company’s desperation to appear competitive became painfully obvious in August 2025, when a Tesla robotaxi got stuck trying to make a left turn in Austin traffic, forcing its “safety monitor” to exit the vehicle in the middle of traffic to move to the driver’s seat and manually complete the ride.
This embarrassing incident, captured on video by Tesla shareholder Ark Invest, reveals the fundamental flaw in Tesla’s approach: prioritizing optics over safety. Tesla relocated its safety monitors from the driver’s seat to the passenger seat, seemingly for aesthetic reasons, thereby creating the illusion of progress while actually reducing safety. Moving the supervisor from the driver’s seat to the front passenger seat is purely for optics, to give the impression of progress, but it actually reduces safety.
CEO Elon Musk has been promising that Tesla would achieve full self-driving “next year” for the better part of a decade. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been making predictions about the automaker solving unsupervised self-driving by the end of every year for the last 6 years, and it has never happened. Yet investors and the public continue to buy into the hype, even as competitors like Waymo and now Zoox are actually delivering on their promises.
The company’s rush to compete with established players like Waymo has led to dangerous shortcuts. While Waymo operates in multiple cities with truly autonomous vehicles that carry passengers without human supervision, Tesla’s “robotaxi” requires constant human oversight. The company recently moved its safety monitors back to the driver’s seat in Austin, a tacit admission that its passenger-seat approach wasn’t working.
Safety Takes a Backseat To Marketing
Tesla’s safety record with autonomous driving technology should give anyone pause. As of October 2024, there have been hundreds of nonfatal incidents involving Autopilot and 59 reported fatalities. The company is currently under NHTSA investigation for not correctly reporting crashes involving its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems.
Recent federal investigations have identified concerning patterns. NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigations flagged 467 crashes over a period of about 15 months from 2022-23. The incidents resulted in 54 injuries and 14 deaths. These aren’t just statistics; they represent real people harmed by Tesla’s rush to market with unfinished technology.
The company has been forced to issue multiple recalls of its Full Self-Driving system because the system was programmed to run stop signs and had other fundamental safety flaws. Tesla issued a recall of nearly every vehicle it had built to address what were called “insufficient” safeguards against misuse.
The Competition Is Leaving Tesla Behind
While Tesla stages elaborate publicity stunts with its “robotaxi” events, companies like Zoox are quietly delivering actual autonomous transportation. Zoox’s Las Vegas launch represents a tangible milestone — real driverless cars carrying real passengers without human intervention.
Waymo, too, continues to expand its truly autonomous service across multiple cities, recently receiving approval to test in New York City. These companies have taken the time to develop safe, reliable technology rather than rushing half-baked systems to market for the sake of maintaining stock prices and meeting arbitrary deadlines.
Tesla’s robotaxi program is emblematic of the company’s broader approach: make grand promises, generate massive hype, and hope no one notices when the reality falls far short of the marketing. Tesla may dominate headlines, but when it comes to actually delivering safe, reliable autonomous transportation, the company remains stuck in traffic while the competition drives away.
Plus, the Zoox is adorable and deserves some attention.