An overview of automomy leaders (Tesla ranks #10)
## Fully-operational L4 robotaxi services Here are the 5 companies that can be legitimately regarded as the top autonomy leaders. Each one has a currently active, fully-driverless robotaxi service that has done at least 1,000,000 rides with paid members of the public. **#1 Waymo (US)** Public launch of L4 service: Oct 2020 Fully driverless trips so far: \~20 Million Growth rate (number of trips, yearly): \~300% **#2 Baidu/Apollo Go (China)** Public launch of L4 service: Aug 2022 Fully driverless trips so far: \~19 Million Growth rate (number of trips, yearly): \~150% **#3 WeRide (China)** Public launch of L4 service: Nov 2019 Fully driverless trips so far: \~3.5 Million Growth rate (number of trips, yearly): \~300% **#4** **Pony.ai** **(China)** Public launch of L4 service: Apr 2023 Fully driverless trips so far: \~2.2 Million Growth rate (number of trips, yearly): \~200% **#5 Zoox (US)** Public launch of L4 service: Feb 2023 Fully driverless trips so far: \~1 Million Growth rate (number of trips, yearly): \~500% --- We can also list the following two companies, which have had a fully-driverless robotaxi service at some point but had to stop operations. Both of them will relaunch in the near future. **#6 Cruise (US)** Public launch of L4 service: Feb 2022 - paused Oct 2023 Fully driverless trips so far: \~5 Million Growth rate (number of trips, yearly): 0 (restarting 2025) **#7 AutoX (China), recently rebranded as Tensor** Public launch of L4 service: Jan 2021 Fully driverless trips so far: \~1.1 Million Growth rate (number of trips, yearly): 0 (undergoing pivot) --- ## L3 driver assist systems In addition, there are two companies that sell cars with a certified **L3 driver assist system**. The big difference between L3 and L2 is legal: when a L3 car crashes while the system is activated, the manufacturer takes responsibility, not the driver. So while L2 is a driver support system, L3 is the beginning of actual automated driving where the car, not the human, is in control. **#8 Mercedes-Benz** Public launch of L3 system: May 2022 Scope: S-Class/EQS in Germany, NV, and CA **#9 BMW** Public launch of L3 system: Dec 2023 Scope: 7 Series in Germany --- ## "Advanced" point-to-point L2 driver assist systems Finally, here's the list of companies with an **"advanced L2" driver assist system**. These are L2 systems (where the driver is responsible for the car, requiring the driver to be constantly monitoring the car and be ready to intervene) that can drive from point to point in any condition, as opposed to L2 systems that are limited to specific conditions such as highway driving. **#10 Tesla** System: FSD (Supervised) Launch year: 2020 Vehicles covered: \~2,200,000 **#11 Li Auto** System: AD Max Launch year: 2023 Vehicles covered: \~1,450,000 **#12 Huawei** System: ADS 3.0 Launch year: 2021 Vehicles covered: \~1,100,000 **#13 XPeng** System: XNGP Launch year: 2022 Vehicles covered: \~480,000 **#14 Mobileye** System: SuperVision Launch year: 2021 Vehicles covered: \~300,000 **#15 Xiaomi** System: Xiaomi Pilot Max Launch year: 2024 Vehicles covered: \~160,000 **#16 Rivian** System: Autonomy+ Launch year: 2025 Vehicles covered: \~100,000 Overall, Tesla narrowly makes the cut as a top-10 autonomy company (it would be number 10) thanks to its advanced L2 system, Full Self-Driving (Supervised), now in version 14. Congrats to Tesla on the achievement! It's important to note that: * **Tesla does not have a L3 driver assist system.** When using FSD (Supervised), the driver is fully responsible for the car and must be ready to intervene at any time. This is unlike the more reliable L3 driver assist systems from Mercedes-Benz and BMW, where the manufacturer takes responsibility in case of incident. * **Tesla does not have a L4 autonomous driving system.** To date Tesla has done a total of 0 (zero) fully driverless trips with paid members of the public, while the rest of the industry has collectively completed over 45,000,000 such trips. Waymo alone has done over 20,000,000 such trips in the US (the majority of them, 14M, were in 2025) and is doing 500,000 more every single week.