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. Nevertheless, the unit of Alphabet didn’t specify when it plans to launch providers in these cities.
Waymo is beginning guide 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 guide testing, it not too long ago shifted to autonomous testing with security drivers nonetheless current.
Waymo has been quickly saying new cities for its robotaxi service. Two weeks in the past, it introduced it will be bringing its expertise to New Orleans, Minneapolis, and Tampa, Fla. In every of those cities, Waymo mentioned it should start laying the groundwork for a business launch. Nevertheless, it didn’t give a timeline.
Just a few days earlier than that, Waymo mentioned it’s bringing autonomous autos (AVs) to Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando, Fla. Every 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 presently 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 Yr Award for 2025.
Waymo taking over snow, worldwide deployments, and extra in 2026
If the whole lot goes in line with Waymo’s plans, 2026 is shaping as much as be its most aggressive 12 months of development. The corporate intends to broaden or launch providers 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 right now 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 expertise abroad. It mentioned it needs to deploy in London in 2026, and it has already deployed take a look at autos in Tokyo to be taught native site visitors patterns.
The corporate can be beginning to deploy its autonomous autos for different purposes. In October, it partnered with DoorDash to make use of Waymo autos for grocery runs, meal orders, and extra in Metro Phoenix.
Waymo dominates the robotaxi house 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, not too long ago closed a Collection E spherical of $203 million at a $6 billion valuation.
