Bloomberg Intelligence published a report asserting that Tesla (TSLA, Financials) is ahead of Waymo in autonomous driving, citing comparative safety and cost advantages in the electric automaker's favor.
According to the report by Bloomberg analyst Steve Man, Tesla's vehicles using Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technology are significantly safer, with Bloomberg claiming they are “10 times safer” than Waymo's based on accident rate comparisons. The report relied on Tesla's quarterly Autopilot Safety Report, which includes only accidents involving airbag or seatbelt deployment.
Bloomberg compared this data to broader police-reported incident data from Waymo, concluding Tesla had a superior safety record. It also stated that Tesla's cumulative FSD mileage reached 3 billion miles globally, versus 22 million miles for Waymo—data Bloomberg appears to have limited to Waymo's San Francisco operations, despite the company surpassing 71 million miles across all markets.
The report further claimed Tesla's self-driving system is approximately seven times more cost-efficient than Waymo's, positioning Tesla as the more scalable solution for autonomous transport.
Bloomberg did not address differences in operational models—such as Tesla's use of supervised systems versus Waymo's fully autonomous, rider-only deployments—in its comparative analysis.
