Waymo publicly attacked Tesla's camera-only approach to self-driving just before Tesla's Cybercab launch, arguing that multiple sensors are essential for safe autonomous vehicles at scale. The two companies represent fundamentally different bets on how to solve autonomy — Waymo's proven but expensive multi-sensor method versus Tesla's riskier AI-only approach that could undercut competitors on price.

• Waymo cited 200+ million real-world miles to claim that cameras alone can't achieve safe full autonomy, while Tesla's end-to-end AI risks "black box failures" where AI models hallucinate without physical consequences to undo mistakes.
• Tesla's Cybercab has no steering wheel or pedals and is designed for mass production (125,000+ annually), while Waymo operates 4,000 robotaxis across 14 cities providing 500,000 paid trips weekly — proving scale but with higher costs due to expensive sensors and purchased vehicles.
• If Tesla proves its AI-first approach works at scale, it could undercut Waymo and Uber on price since Tesla manufactures its own vehicles and uses only cameras, while Waymo buys vehicles from other makers and adds costly sensor arrays.