Rachel Warren

Now, on the flip side of that, Tesla relies on a vision-only approach.

So they use just eight cameras.

They use various neural networks to replicate human vision.

Elon Musk has previously said that LiDAR is a crutch, that they prefer this cheaper human-like approach.

But so far, Waymo's approach has proven to be far more effective and allowed for much faster and broader deployment.

One final thing as well, Waymo meticulously maps

every inch of its operational cities down to millimeter precision.

And that is something that I think is allowing them to deploy at a very fast rate with minimal incident and in a way that's resonating with consumers.

And I think that that so far is putting them ahead of the pack.

Will that change in the next decade?

It's possible, but certainly right now they're the leader in this space.

But hey, it didn't cost us too much, right?

Yeah, I think you made the point perfectly, Travis, because that's the approach Waymo has taken.

And I think it has been incredibly effective.

They have really prioritized developing the most advanced and safest technology first, aiming for level four and five autonomy.

And that really means you're focusing on robust systems that are designed for a commercial ride hailing service or safety is paramount.

And then costs can be amortized over a fleet rather than individual buyers, at least initially.

And the bet there is that once the technology is proven, mass production will naturally bring costs down.

If you reverse the strategy there, you can very much end up in a situation where there are key safety concerns, which inflate your costs over time anyway.

And I think that's been one of the problems we've seen with Tesla's approach.