Waymo Expands Robotaxi Service to Four New Cities

Waymo is set to launch its robotaxi service in four additional cities in Texas and Florida, bringing its fleet of self-driving vehicles to a total of ten major metropolitan areas across the U.S.

The announcement, made on Tuesday, includes the addition of Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. This expansion further solidifies Waymo’s position in the autonomous driving sector, especially as competitors like Tesla and Amazon’s Zoox are still in the testing phase in limited locations.

Currently, Waymo’s robotaxis complete over 400,000 trips each week across six areas: Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, and Austin. In most cities, the ride-hailing service operates through its own app, although in Atlanta and Austin, users can only access the robotaxis via Uber.

This expansion is a crucial step for Waymo, which aims to exceed 1 million weekly paid rides by the end of 2026. While the exact future cities for service remain unspecified, there are eight other locations being considered, including Las Vegas, Washington, Detroit, and Boston. Waymo has also hinted that its first international market may be London.

To support this growth, Waymo recently secured $16 billion in funding, raising its valuation to $126 billion. This increase has sparked discussions about a potential spin-off from its parent company, Alphabet, where it originated as a covert project within Google back in 2009.

Despite the expansion, the robotaxi service in these new cities will initially only be available to a select group of users with the app, before a broader rollout to all interested passengers.