Nevada's transportation authority unanimously approved permits Thursday allowing Tesla, Uber, and Waymo to deploy up to 8,000 commercial robotaxis in Clark County, home to Las Vegas, over the next 12 months.
The Nevada Transportation Authority unanimously approved permits Thursday allowing Tesla, Uber, and Waymo to launch commercial robotaxi services in Clark County — home to Las Vegas — in a decision that could deploy up to 8,000 autonomous vehicles across the region within the next 12 months.
Tesla received the largest allocation, with a permit authorizing up to 5,000 robotaxis. Waymo was approved for up to 1,000 autonomous vehicles, and Uber received an equivalent 1,000-vehicle permit, which it will fulfill through partnerships with Hyundai subsidiary Motional and Zoox. Zoox already holds a separate autonomous vehicle network company permit covering 100 robotaxis.
Whether any of the three companies will reach their permitted ceilings in the allotted timeframe remains uncertain, as testimony from their own representatives suggested full deployment is unlikely.
"The 5,000 has always been a ceiling for us," said Eric Early, Tesla's Cybercab chief engineer, during the NTA meeting. "I don't think we'll be in a position by this time next year to deploy 5,000 vehicles, and it's not [because of] the technology. … I think we would be extremely happy and satisfied if we could get ourselves up to 2,500, maybe a bit higher than that in the next year."
The approvals set up Clark County as a densely contested autonomous vehicle market, with three major operators competing for the same riders. Most autonomous vehicle testing in the area to date has taken place in the Golden Triangle — the corridor between the airport, Las Vegas Boulevard, and surrounding streets. Motional is also conducting tests in the downtown area and in a shopping district known as Town Square.
Opposition emerged at Thursday's hearing from incumbent transportation operators. Kimberly Maxson-Rushton, a lawyer representing the Livery Operators Association, argued the approvals move too quickly and on too large a scale.
"These applications raise two grave concerns," Maxson-Rushton said at the hearing. "One deals with the oversaturation of the commercial transportation industry as a whole in Nevada. And the second one deals with the overcrowding of the roadways, and specifically the Golden Triangle."
Local taxi companies also opposed the permits, reflecting broader anxieties about displacement of human drivers — a debate that is likely to intensify as deployments scale.
Uber has sought to position itself as a middle-ground player in the autonomous vehicle space, advocating for hybrid ride-hailing networks that pair human drivers with robotaxis. The company has even lobbied for regulatory frameworks that would require robotaxis to operate on networks that also include human drivers — a stance that places it at odds with Waymo and serves as a hedge against its autonomous vehicle partnerships underperforming relative to Tesla or Waymo.
During the NTA meeting, Uber made a similar case, arguing that a gradual hybrid integration approach would allow cities to match autonomous vehicle supply to peak demand without oversaturating the market.
The Nevada approvals arrive as robotaxi regulation remains fragmented across the United States, with individual cities and states setting their own frameworks. Las Vegas, with its high tourist volume, concentrated geography, and existing AV testing infrastructure, offers a distinct proving ground — and a high-visibility stage for whichever company scales fastest and most reliably.
Sara Montes de Oca is the Editor in Chief of TechEchelon. Previously a correspondent and producer in Washington, D.C., covering business, finance, and politics.
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