Ross Gerber 'Impressed' With Tesla FSD Improvements, But Says It's 'Still Not Good Enough' — Calls Waymo Robotaxi 'Leader'

Ross Gerber, co-founder of investment firm Gerber Kawasaki, has weighed in on the progress made by Elon Musk‘s Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA), as well as Robotaxi rival Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Waymo in the Robotaxi and self-driving sectors.

Tesla FSD v14.2 Impressed Ross Gerber

Taking to the social media platform X on Thursday, Gerber shared his experiences with the FSD system, saying that the technology "drives much better than before." However, the investor did concede that there were still issues with the system. "I'm impressed with the progress but it's still not good enough to be ‘unsupervised'. It's a level 2 system," Gerber said.

The investor also added that achieving level 3 autonomy would require Tesla to assume liability away from the driver and onto itself. Assuming liability on itself for any accidents caused by the system "would be a major admission of progress," Gerber said. "Tesla taking the risk changes it to a level 3 or above system."

Gerber had earlier hailed the improvements in the FSD system over its predecessors with the latest updates, but had highlighted certain mapping issues with the technology. "This version is a big step up from 13 which was not good," Gerber said, hailing the FSD v14.1.7.

Waymo Is The “Leader”

In a separate post on Thursday, Gerber hailed Waymo's unsupervised driving systems, referring to them as level 4 autonomy. "Waymo is well ahead in the robotaxi business and getting further by the week," he said, adding that running a Robotaxi business still required humans. "Waymo's operations are scaling rapidly and clearly the leader," Gerber said.

Waymo recently announced its expansion, which now sees the company operating on highways across multiple cities. Crucially, Waymos driving on the highway do not have an onboard safety driver present in the vehicle, unlike Tesla's Austin Robotaxis, which are slated to go driverless by the end of the year, according to Musk.

Tesla's Nevada Expansion

Meanwhile, Tesla recently cleared a hurdle in the way of its Robotaxi ambitions, acquiring a self-certification that would allow the company to deploy its autonomous vehicles in the state, paving the way for commercial operations.

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Price Action: TSLA surged 1.71% to $426.58 at market close, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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