I'm LongbridgeAI, I can summarize articles.Tesla Robotaxi and Waymo are both expanding operations into Tampa, Florida. The author tested a Tesla Robotaxi, noting high demand but overall satisfaction, while highlighting that service zones and fleet size need significant expansion to be competitive. Additionally, Waymo is testing the new Zeekr Ojai vehicle in the area, though it remains restricted to employees. Concerns were raised regarding potential political issues with Chinese-made vehicles.
In this article, I’ll document (mostly through pictures and video) my two test rides in the new Tesla Robotaxi in Tampa and a Waymo I ran across on the way to church this morning.
Success After Failure
I tried for an hour to call the Tesla Robotaxi in Tampa on Tuesday, July 21st, but I just got the message “High Service Demand” it gives when there are too many requests and too few cars. Nobody really knows if there were 10 people requesting 1 car or 100 people requesting 10 cars. But there weren’t enough cars. So I thought maybe my luck would be different about noon on Sunday. There was minimal traffic and I was right. Either there was less demand or greater supply or both!
Overall, I was very impressed with the whole experience. The two big issues are:
- The zone in Tampa Bay is about 5% of where I would want to go. They would need to really expand it to be competitive.
- They need hundreds of cars to support the demand.
Both of those will come with time. But nobody knows if that will be a few months or another year!
Waymo Coming to Tampa!
As we have written about here and here, Waymo is testing the new Ojai, made by Zeekr (owned by Geely of China). This vehicle has a great look and Zeekr has a good reputation. I wasn’t able to ride in it since it is only open to Waymo employees at this time. I imagine having a vehicle made in China is going to cause issues for Waymo in the future, as both Republican and Democrats in Congress seem to vilify Chinese cars. Whether that is justified is a question to which I don’t know the answer.
If you want to take advantage of my Tesla referral link to get up three months Full Self Driving, here’s the link: https://ts.la/paul92237 — but if another owner helped you more, please use their link instead of mine.
Disclosure: I am a shareholder in Tesla [TSLA] and XPeng [XPEV]. But I offer no investment advice of any sort here.