Tesla stock dropped roughly 6% on Friday after the company's long-awaited Cybercab launch event in Austin, Texas, with Wall Street analysts calling the reveal underwhelming and NHTSA opening an audit query into Tesla's self-certification of the vehicle. But zoom out and compare the two rival robotaxis side by side, and there is a real case for why the Cybercab could win the mass-market autonomy race. Waymo's newest sixth-generation robotaxi, the Zeekr RT, is built by Geely in China and retrofitted for autonomy in the United States. Morgan Stanley estimates the fully-equipped vehicle costs roughly $125,000 per unit and carries a heavy sensor suite of 13 cameras, 4 lidars, and 6 radars. Tesla's Cybercab, unveiled in October 2024 and now on public roads in Austin, is built at Gigafactory Texas, uses just 8 exterior cameras with vision-only AI, and Elon Musk is targeting a sticker price under $30,000. That price has not been formally confirmed and the Cybercab is not sold to consumers toda...