Waymo
Tesla and Waymo executives defend self-driving safety in Senate hearing
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Top executives from Tesla and Waymo testified before a U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday, defending the safety of their autonomous vehicles amid recent incidents and calls for federal regulations. Lawmakers expressed bipartisan support for uniform national standards to address the current patchwork of state laws governing self-driving cars. Concerns over liability, remote operations, and competition from China also dominated the discussion.
Emergency first responders expressed frustration to federal regulators over Waymo autonomous vehicles blocking emergency responses. Firefighters, police, EMTs, and paramedics reported spending time resolving issues with frozen or stuck self-driving cars during crises. One official described the technology as deployed too hastily.
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Waymo launched driverless taxi operations in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando on February 24, 2026, bringing its total to 10 cities. The service initially opens to select riders in these areas. Meanwhile, competitor Tesla operates driverless robotaxis in zero cities.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk dismissed Alphabet's Waymo as a competitor in autonomous driving, stating on X that it 'never really had a chance' against Tesla. The comment responded to Google DeepMind Chief Scientist Jeff Dean's highlight of Waymo's superior rider-only autonomous miles. Musk's remark comes amid Tesla's plans to launch unsupervised robotaxis in Austin soon.