Waymo was first given the inexperienced gentle to start public robotaxi rides in California in October 2021. | Supply: Waymo
Waymo at this time mentioned it’s bringing driverless robotaxis to 5 new cities: Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. The corporate at the moment operates autonomous robotaxis in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco.
Waymo mentioned it’s eradicating human security drivers in Miami beginning at this time, and it’ll start within the remaining 4 cities over the approaching weeks. To start out, the self-driving robotaxis will likely be accessible solely to firm workers in every of those cities. Waymo mentioned companies will confide in the general public in 2026.
“Waymo has entered a brand new section of business scale, doubling the variety of cities we function with out a human specialist within the automotive,” mentioned Saswat Panigrahi, Waymo chief product officer. “This growth is a testomony to our world-leading AI, {hardware}, operations, rider love, and our constructive dialogue with native communities, all of which permits us to scale safely. By reworking our in depth expertise into growth, we speed up the introduction of the protected, dependable, and magical expertise of the Waymo Driver to riders world wide.”
Within the U.S., Waymo robotaxis have already pushed greater than 100 million absolutely autonomous miles on public roads and supplied greater than 10 million paid rides. The Mountain View, Calif.-based firm mentioned it’s now driving greater than 2 million absolutely autonomous miles and offering over 1 / 4 of 1,000,000 rides per week.
Waymo gained The Robotic Report‘s RBR50 Robotic of the Yr Award in 2025.
Waymo has large plans for 2026
In 2025, Waymo has been increasing its robotaxi companies, not simply by including new cities, but additionally by increasing the circumstances it may well function in. Simply final week, the corporate introduced that its autonomous automobiles would start providing rides on freeways throughout the San Francisco Bay Space, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. The corporate is beginning with a choose variety of public riders, which it expects to develop within the coming months.
Waymo additionally expanded its service space within the San Francisco Bay Space. Its robotaxis now cowl San Francisco all the way in which all the way down to San Jose, Calif., together with curbside service at San Jose Mineta Worldwide Airport. Take a look at the service space within the map beneath.
Waymo has expanded its service within the San Francisco Bay Space. Supply: Waymo
Robotaxis head to new environments
Past freeways, Waymo additionally has plans to start out deploying robotaxis in areas that get extra adversarial climate. Whereas the corporate has hit some main milestones, there’s a key similarity between all of its autonomous driving environments to date: None of them get common, heavy snowfall.
Waymo can also be testing robotaxis in New York Metropolis, Washington, D.C., and Boston, and it has plans to deploy robotaxis in Detroit within the close to future.
Moreover, Waymo is planning to deliver its expertise abroad. It mentioned it needs to deploy in London in 2026, and it has already deployed check automobiles in Tokyo to be taught native visitors patterns.
The corporate can also be beginning to deploy its autonomous automobiles for different functions. In October, it partnered with DoorDash to make use of Waymo automobiles for grocery runs, meal orders, and extra in Metro Phoenix.
Waymo has mentioned it intends to increase to launch companies in Nashville, Las Vegas, San Diego, and Detroit within the coming years.
Whereas Waymo’s longtime rival Cruise is not in operation, it nonetheless faces opponents reminiscent of Zoox and Nuro, that are earlier of their deployment journeys. Right this moment, Zoox introduced that it has opened robotaxi operations to the general public in San Francisco.
