Tesla Mannequin 3 named New Zealand’s finest passenger automobile of 2025

Toyota Linked Europe designer Karim Dia Toubajie has highlighted a selected development that grew to become evident in Waymo’s Q3 2025 occupancy stats. Because it turned out, 90% of the journeys taken by the driverless taxis carried two or fewer passengers.

These observations all however validate Tesla’s controversial two-seat Cybercab technique, which has caught a variety of criticism because it was unveiled final yr.

Toyota designer observes a development

Karim Dia ToubajieLead Product Designer (Sustainable Mobility) at Toyota Linked Europe, analyzed Waymo’s newest California Public Utilities Fee filings and posted the outcomes on LinkedIn this week.

“90% of robotaxi journeys have 2 or much less passengers, so why are we utilizing 5-seater autos?” Toubajie requested. He continued: “90% of journeys have 2 or much less folks, 75% of journeys have 1 or much less folks.” He accompanied his feedback with a graphic exhibiting Waymo’s occupancy charges, which confirmed 71% of journeys having one passenger, 15% of journeys having two passengers, 6% of journeys having three passengers, 5% of journeys having zero passengers, and solely 3% of journeys having 4 passengers.

The information excludes operational journeys like depot runs or charging, although Toubajie identified that more often than not, Waymo’s large self-driving taxis are actually simply transporting 1 or 2 folks, at occasions even no passengers in any respect. “Because of this more often than not, the automobile getting used considerably outweighs the wants of the journey,” the Toyota designer wrote in his publish.

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Cybercab all of the sudden appears completely sized

Toubajie gave a nod to Tesla’s method. “The Tesla Cybercab introduced in 2024, is a 2-seater robotaxi with a 50kWh battery however I nonetheless consider that is on the bigger aspect of what’s required for many journeys,” he wrote.

With Waymo’s personal numbers now proving 90% of demand matches two seats or fewer, the wheel-less, lidar-free Cybercab now appears like the neatest play within the room. The Cybercab is designed to be simple to provide, with CEO Elon Musk commenting that its product line would resemble a client electronics manufacturing unit greater than an automotive plant. Because of this the Cybercab might saturate the roads rapidly as soon as it’s deployed.

Whereas the Cybercab will probably take the lion’s share of Tesla’s ride-hailing passengers, the Mannequin 3 sedan and Mannequin Y crossover can be good for the remaining  9% of riders who require bigger autos. This ought to be simple to implement for Tesla, because the Mannequin Y and Mannequin 3 are each mass-market autos.