Waymo’s Robo-Taxi Lead Widens as Tesla Plays Catch-Up in the Autonomous Race

Douglas and Lee discussed the competitive dynamics between Waymo and Tesla in autonomous driving, concluding that Waymo’s regulatory footprint and scalability give Alphabet a decisive early advantage.

Published January 7, 2026, 7:09pm ET · 1 min read

A news graphic featuring large white text that reads 'WAYMO'S ROBO-TAXI LEAD WIDENS' over a blurred image of a white autonomous vehicle. A red banner at the bottom states 'as Tesla Plays Catch-Up in the Autonomous Race'. The top right corner includes a '24/7 WALL ST' logo. Two men, possibly commentators, are visible in the bottom right section.
The image visually represents the ongoing competition in the autonomous vehicle sector, highlighting Waymo's perceived advantage over Tesla in the robo-taxi market. This dynamic is central to discussions around future revenue streams and market leadership. © 24/7 Wall St
Douglas A. McIntyre

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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