- Tesla and Waymo are trying to scale new vehicle platforms for their robotaxi services.
- Tesla is testing its two-door Cybercab while Waymo is rolling out the Ojai for commercial rides.
- A robotaxi content creator spotted the two companies ramping up production.
The hustle never stops for Tesla and Waymo.
As both companies race to roll out new vehicles for their respective robotaxi services, a bystander caught a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes scaling operations of Tesla and Waymo.
David Moss, a Tesla fan who recently pivoted to content creation focused on autonomous vehicles, posted two videos on X — one of Waymo's Ojai fleet in Arizona and another of Tesla's Cybercab fleet in Dallas — both taken during his ongoing nationwide scavenger hunt for robotaxi operations.
In Mesa, Arizona, Moss was scoping out Waymo's manufacturing and integration facility, where it retrofits the Jaguar I-PACE SUV and the Ojai with its proprietary sensors and driverless software.
The Ojai is Waymo's latest and most spacious robotaxi platform. The vehicle's base comes from Zeekr, a Chinese EV company.
Moss said he counted at least 500 retrofitted Ojais within his line of sight and that there were likely more when he visited the campus on August 6.
That would be at least five times the about 100 Ojai robotaxis that Waymo initially launched in May.
On the other side of the Waymo facility, Moss told Business Insider that there were more Ojais that weren't retrofitted with sensors.
"It was the most impressive display of autonomous vehicles I've seen for sure to date," he said.
A Waymo spokesperson declined to comment.
On August 9, Moss went to Dallas, where he documented a large lot near Dallas Love Field Airport storing more than100 Tesla Cybercabs at the time of his visit.
The Cybercab is Tesla's two-door, purpose-built robotaxi that is intended to have no steering wheel or pedals.
Moss said the Cybercabs he spotted had steering wheels, which could indicate that the vehicles are part of Tesla's validation and mapping fleet rather than a production fleet that's ready for commercial service.
The Dallas lot also stored the Model Y robotaxis used for Tesla Robotaxi.
Tesla said in its second-quarter reporting from July that the Cybercab was in production and that engineering test drives on public roads had begun.
A Tesla spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Moss said he has also spotted Cybercab fleets in San Antonio, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
As robotaxi companies increase service areas, acquiring land will also be a necessary part of their operations. Robotaxi services need a physical space to charge and maintain the driverless cars.
In San Francisco, Waymo has its largest depot, which the company said can service hundreds of robotaxis.
Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at lloydlee@businessinsider.com or Signal at lloydlee.71. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.
The post Videos show Tesla and Waymo ramping up new vehicles for their robotaxi fleets appeared first on Business Insider
