The only selling point of FSD (Supervised) is that it (can) work "everywhere." This is because it only relies on navigation information and what the car can see.
Waymo and similar companies all use HD Mapping. Ignoring the specifics, it can be thought of as a centimeter-level perfect reconstruction of the environment, including additional metadata such as slopes, exact lane positions, road markings, barriers, traffic signs, and much more.
HD Mapping is great when it's accurate and available. But it requires a ton of data and constant updating, or the car will get "lost," and realistically will never be implemented in general, at best in certain cities.
Reliance on HD Mapping gets you to "robotaxis" quicker and easier, but it doesn't and likely cannot scale.
It remains to be seen if Tesla can generalize FSD enough to reach the same level as HD Mapping everywhere. Still, they have shown that the current limiting factor is not what the car sees or knows but what it does with that information. It is unclear how or why HD mapping would help them at that point.
Waymo and similar companies all use HD Mapping. Ignoring the specifics, it can be thought of as a centimeter-level perfect reconstruction of the environment, including additional metadata such as slopes, exact lane positions, road markings, barriers, traffic signs, and much more.
HD Mapping is great when it's accurate and available. But it requires a ton of data and constant updating, or the car will get "lost," and realistically will never be implemented in general, at best in certain cities.
Reliance on HD Mapping gets you to "robotaxis" quicker and easier, but it doesn't and likely cannot scale.
It remains to be seen if Tesla can generalize FSD enough to reach the same level as HD Mapping everywhere. Still, they have shown that the current limiting factor is not what the car sees or knows but what it does with that information. It is unclear how or why HD mapping would help them at that point.