Tesla, Uber, and Waymo win OK for Nevada robotaxi fleets

The Nevada Transportation Authority unanimously approved three permits Thursday allowing Tesla, Uber, and Waymo to run commercial robotaxi services in Clark County, home to Las Vegas. Combined, the permits would let the companies deploy up to 8,000 robotaxis across the county over the next 12 months: up to 5,000 for Tesla, up to 1,000 for Waymo, and 1,000 for Uber, which will operate through partnerships with Hyundai subsidiary Motional and with Zoox — the latter of which already holds a separate permit for 100 robotaxis.

Whether the companies will actually hit those numbers is another matter. Testimony from Tesla and the other companies suggested the answer is no. “The 5,000 has always been a ceiling for us,” said Eric Early, Tesla’s Cybercab chief engineer, at the meeting. He said Tesla doesn’t expect to be in a position to deploy 5,000 vehicles within a year — not for technical reasons — and that the company would be “extremely happy and satisfied” to reach around 2,500, maybe somewhat more. Even rolling out only half their approved totals, Tesla, Uber (through Motional and Zoox), and Waymo would still turn Clark County — and Las Vegas specifically — into a major robotaxi battleground.

The fast rollout is expected to reshape the city’s workforce: supporters say it will create jobs to maintain, charge, and clean the vehicles, while critics warn it could wipe out human taxi and gig drivers. The Livery Operators Association and local taxi companies opposed the permits, with the association’s lawyer warning of oversaturation of Nevada’s commercial transportation industry as a whole and overcrowding of the roadways, specifically in the Golden Triangle — the area between the airport and Las Vegas Boulevard where most autonomous-vehicle testing has occurred so far (Motional is also testing downtown and in the Town Square shopping district).

Uber has positioned itself as a middle path in the fight, pushing for a hybrid system in which ride-hailing networks mix human and robotaxi drivers — a stance that puts it at odds with Waymo and also hedges against Uber’s own autonomous ambitions falling short of Tesla’s or Waymo’s.

Why it matters

Las Vegas is shaping up as the first market where three major robotaxi operators compete head-on at commercial scale, and how it handles congestion, driver jobs, and rival operators will be a test case other cities watch as they weigh similar permits.