Tesla CEO Elon Musk is not so pleased with the recent remarks made by the company’s former AI chief Andrej Karpathy, after Karpathy compared Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system with Google-parent Alphabet’s Waymo software. Recently, an X user Yunchen Jin shared some insights from his conversation with Karpathy, in which he praised the autonomous driving technologies of both Tesla and Waymo. However, he also noted that differences between the two would become clearer as operations scaled. Earlier, Karpathy had likened Telsa’s FSD experience to riding a magnetic levitation train.
Tesla’s former AI head Andrej Karpathy’s answer on Google Waymo software vs Tesla question
“Andrej Karpathy said a year ago, “Waymo has a hardware problem, while Tesla has a software problem.” The SF power outage froze Waymo, but not Tesla FSD. Here’s why imo:Waymo is “modular”: It relies on HD maps, LiDAR, sensors, 5G, and many neural networks. It works well until a single module fails. When the traffic lights died, the HD map no longer matched reality, so the car defaulted to a safe stop (brick mode). Also, the cars lost their connection to remote operators. Tesla FSD is “end-to-end”: One massive neural network converts camera pixels directly into steering and braking. This follows Andrej’s Software 2.0 idea: Instead of writing manual C++ logic for every scenario, you train a neural net on billions of human miles. The “code” is the model weights. It drives more like a human. I think now Waymo has a huge software problem. Its modular approach is a scaling and dependency trap. Long term, Tesla FSD wins,” wrote Jin on X.“I asked Andrej whether he still thinks Waymo’s software is better than Tesla’s.” Replying to the question, Karpathy said, “They both offer what now intuitively feels to me like perfect drive — smooth, confident just works. There’s probably still differences ofc but you have to wait for them or aggregate them over many cars etc.
Elon Musk responds to Andrej Karpathy’s claim
Musk responded directly to the post, saying Karpathy’s perspective was “dated.”“Andrej’s understanding is dated at this point.Tesla AI software has advanced vastly beyond what it was when he left.The intelligence density per GB of Tesla AI is at least an order of magnitude better than anything else out there,” wrote Musk.
Progress made by Tesla
Recently, Tesla rolled out FSD v14 and the technology has been praised for smoother navigation and improved safety features. The company is also working on conducting driverless testing of its of its Robotaxi fleet. On the other hand, Waymo is still a dominant player in the US robotaxi makes and the company reported 14 million paid rides in 2025. The Google-parent Alphabet owned company is also planning to expand into Europe, while Baidu backed Apollo Go has further announced its plans to enter UK in partnership with Uber and Lyft.