Waymo has publicly criticised approaches to autonomous driving that rely solely on cameras and end-to-end AI, in comments widely seen as aimed at Tesla, just a week before Tesla is expected to unveil its Cybercab robotaxi on 3 September 2026. The Alphabet-owned company argued in a blog post and an Axios interview that fully driverless vehicles cannot be made safe without combining cameras, lidar and radar, and that "pure end-to-end" AI systems risk unpredictable "black box" failures. The remarks sparked a heated weekend row on social media between Waymo staff and Tesla-aligned analysts, underscoring the high stakes as the two firms prepare to compete more directly in a robotaxi market potentially worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Waymo's driving software VP, Srikanth Thirumalai, said that after more than 200 million real-world miles, data showed cameras alone were insufficient and that multiple sensor types were essential for redundancy and safety, while warning that even advanced AI models "still hallucinate." Waymo, which currently operates roughly 4,000 robotaxis across 14 US cities and completes about 500,000 paid trips weekly, also announced three new markets. Tesla, by contrast, has built its Cybercab — a purpose-built two-seater with no steering wheel or pedals — around a camera-and-AI-only system, with Elon Musk having long dismissed lidar as a "crutch."