Tesla Robotaxi & Waymo Both Expanding Into Tampa, Florida!

This is a robotaxi story, not an energy-efficiency one, but here's what happened: Tesla's Robotaxi service and Waymo's self-driving cars are both expanding into the Tampa, Florida area. A writer tested Tesla's Robotaxi over a weekend and got a ride after failing earlier in the week due to high demand — the app works much like Uber or Lyft, showing wait time, price, and a live map of the car's approach. Pricing came in a bit below comparable Uber rides in his examples.

The writer notes two limits on the Tesla service right now: the area it covers in Tampa Bay is small, only a fraction of where a typical rider might want to go, and there aren't yet enough cars to meet demand, which is why requests sometimes fail with a "high service demand" message. Both issues could improve, but there's no set timeline.

Separately, Waymo is also testing a new vehicle, the Ojai, built by Zeekr (a Chinese automaker owned by Geely), in the Tampa area. That vehicle is currently limited to Waymo employees only, not the public. The writer flags that using a Chinese-made vehicle could draw political scrutiny in the U.S., since lawmakers from both parties have raised concerns about Chinese-made cars, though he doesn't take a position on whether that concern is justified.

None of this affects home energy upgrades or rebates — it's about self-driving car services expanding in one city.