A rendering of the Sixth-generation Waymo Driver on Hyundai’s all-electric IONIQ 5 SUV. | Supply: Waymo
Waymo plans to convey its robotaxi service to Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. Nonetheless, the unit of Alphabet didn’t specify when it plans to launch companies in these cities.
Waymo is beginning handbook testing with security drivers in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis this week. Waymo began operations in Philadelphia over the summer season, and after a interval of handbook testing, it just lately shifted to autonomous testing with security drivers nonetheless current.
Waymo has been quickly asserting new cities for its robotaxi service. Two weeks in the past, it introduced it will be bringing its know-how to New Orleans, Minneapolis, and Tampa, Fla. In every of those cities, Waymo mentioned it’s going to start laying the groundwork for a industrial launch. Nonetheless, it didn’t give a timeline.
A couple of days earlier than that, Waymo mentioned it’s bringing autonomous automobiles (AVs) to Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando, Fla. Per week earlier than that, Waymo introduced its AVs would start providing rides on freeways throughout the San Francisco Bay Space, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.
Waymo at the moment operates autonomous robotaxis in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. Within the U.S., Waymo robotaxis have already pushed greater than 10 million paid rides. The Mountain View, Calif.-based firm mentioned it’s now driving greater than 2 million totally autonomous miles and offering over 1 / 4 of 1,000,000 rides per week.
Waymo gained The Robotic Report‘s RBR50 Robotic of the 12 months Award for 2025.
Waymo taking up snow, worldwide deployments, and extra in 2026
If every thing goes in response to Waymo’s plans, 2026 is shaping as much as be its most aggressive yr of development. The corporate intends to increase or launch companies in Nashville, Las Vegas, San Diego, Detroit, Washington D.C., Miami, Dallas, Seattle, Houston, Orlando, San Antonio, and Denver within the coming years.
Moreover, the 4 cities that Waymo introduced as we speak all have one thing in frequent: snow. Waymo’s earliest deployments had been in cities with heat climates. Now, cities like Detroit and Minneapolis will mark a few of Waymo’s first deployments in areas that get common snowfall.
As well as, Waymo is planning to convey its know-how abroad. It mentioned it desires to deploy in London in 2026, and it has already deployed take a look at automobiles in Tokyo to study native site visitors patterns.
The corporate can also be beginning to deploy its autonomous automobiles for different purposes. In October, it partnered with DoorDash to make use of Waymo automobiles for grocery runs, meal orders, and extra in Metro Phoenix.
Waymo dominates the robotaxi area within the U.S., however there are a variety of firms hoping to catch up. In June, Tesla launched a robotaxi service in Austin. Zoox, an Amazon subsidiary, launched its first public service in San Francisco in November. Moreover, Nuro, a Mountain View, Calif.-based startup, just lately closed a Sequence E spherical of $203 million at a $6 billion valuation.
