For the first time in the United States, robotaxis are becoming available to the general public. We’re talking about fully autonomous, driverless travel by car. Zero onboard safety operator required — and sometimes not even a steering wheel. No longer confined to test tracks and pilot programs, these AI-powered machines are rolling down the streets of major cities like San Francisco and Phoenix, shuttling people from point A to point B right alongside human-operated vehicles.
What Is Waymo?
Waymo is an autonomous vehicle company and the leading commercial operator of robotaxis in the United States. Born out of Google’s self-driving car project, Waymo develops the software, hardware and operational systems that allow vehicles to navigate public roads without a human driver. The California-based company now offers fully driverless ride-hailing services in multiple U.S. cities, and is expanding internationally.
Perhaps the most important player in this space is Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving technology company, which is generating buzz with the second phase of its commercial rollout and pending $100 billion valuation. At the start of 2026, the company announced rider-only open rollouts in Atlanta and Austin, and for the first time is taking its robotaxis international, with operations planned in London and Tokyo. Adding to the commotion, Waymo unveiled the newest member to its all-electric fleet, Ojai, a Zeekr-built, driverless “people mover.”
As competitors lag in the robotaxi race, Waymo’s rapid expansion is a strategic land grab to score rider loyalties before others have a chance to enter the market — and to prove that fully autonomous vehicles have finally crossed the line from an experimental technology to a viable public transportation option.
What Is Waymo?
Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company that develops and operates self-driving robotaxis, primarily for commercial ride-hailing services. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, it began in 2009 as an internal research initiative within Google known as the Self-Driving Car Project, but was eventually spun out as a standalone Alphabet subsidiary after a successful trial period in Phoenix, Arizona provided a proof of concept. Along the way, the company explored use cases beyond passenger transport, like self-driving trucks, before ultimately concentrating on urban robotaxi services.
The company’s autonomous vehicles use a combination of LiDAR, radar, cameras and advanced artificial intelligence to perceive their surroundings, predict the behavior of other road users and figure out what to do in complex urban environments and traffic scenes. Waymo manages the full lifecycle of its all-electric fleet — from vehicle design and integration to operation and maintenance — allowing its in-house teams to maintain tight control over safety and performance in its closed-loop system.
Once thought of as a pricey luxury reserved for Silicon Valley tech insiders, Waymo’s ride-hailing services are becoming more accessible as the company rolls into new cities, opens availability to the general public, expands its frenemy partnership with Uber and solidifies its reputation for safety. To date, these vehicles have completed 20 million rides, while maintaining a sparkling safety record. According to the company, Waymo’s robotaxis are 90 percent less likely to be involved in a serious collision than human drivers.
Waymo’s Products and Platforms
Waymo’s two main offerings include the Waymo Driver self-driving system and Waymo One mobile app platform.
Waymo Driver
The company’s core product is the Waymo Driver. This fully autonomous system is “the world’s most experienced driver,” trained on millions of real-world miles and billions more in simulated traffic scenes. It is made up of a combination of hardware and software that is physically mounted on and embedded within an electric vehicle, typically Jaguar I-PACE SUVs or Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans.
Waymo Driver integrates custom hardware that continuously scans and collects data about the surrounding environment, which the proprietary software then interprets to identify objects, pinpoint the vehicle’s location on a map, predict how other road users are likely to move and control steering, braking and acceleration.
Waymo One
Waymo deploys this technology through Waymo One, its app-based ride-hailing service that allows members of the public to request robotaxis on-demand. Riders can use the app to request trips, unlock the vehicle, view the car’s driving behavior in real time and seek customer support mid-ride.
Waymo One is available 24/7 in select cities — some of which where vehicles are permitted to be fully driverless, no longer requiring an on-board safety operator, and even able to jump on the freeways. In the past, Waymo One’s service has been gatekept through a waitlist that welcomed users via gradual rollout phases, but as of 2024, its offerings expanded to the general public. Waitlists are still a feature for newer service areas as the company scales into more major cities.
How Does Waymo’s Technology Work?
Waymo’s technology centers on the Waymo Driver, a fully autonomous system that is physically installed into vehicles and is able to control all aspects of driving without human input. Each vehicle is equipped with a custom, in-house sensor suite that includes LiDAR, radar, high-resolution cameras and external audio receivers in order to “see” a 360-degree view of its environment on a constantly updated feedback loop.
LiDAR
LiDAR, or light-detection and ranging, determines the distance and three-dimensional shapes of surrounding objects by emitting millions of laser pulses per second in every direction. Then, by measuring how long it takes each beam to bounce back, these data points are collected to create a detailed 360-degree “point cloud” that maps everything from nearby curbs and pedestrians to distant vehicles up to 300 meters away. This method combines both long-range and short-range sensors, providing the Waymo Driver with a precise, real-time picture of its environment, even with limited visibility or dynamic urban settings.
Cameras
Waymo’s network of cameras provide a panoramic, high-resolution view, capturing traffic lights, signs, lane markings, pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles and construction zones even at long distance. Built with high dynamic range and thermal stability, they work in tandem with LiDAR and radar to feed live data into the onboard AI system, which can then use the information to identify objects, track movement and guide the Waymo Driver through complex traffic scenarios. Each Jaguar I-PACEs is outfitted with 29 cameras, according to the company.
Radar
For an extra layer of sight, Waymo vehicles send out millimeter-wave radio signals that measure closeby obstacles in real time based on the Doppler shift and time it takes for the signal to travel back. This capability is especially valuable in low light conditions where cameras or LiDAR may struggle, such as rain, fog or snow, ensuring the vehicle maintains awareness of its surroundings. Working with LiDAR and cameras, radar data supports safe, real-time navigation by tracking objects in motion and detecting partially obscured obstacles.
Onboard Computing System
These vehicles feature a powerful AI-enabled onboard computing system that acts as the robotaxi’s brain. Instead of relying on a constant cloud connection, the system processes data directly inside the car using server-grade CPUs, GPUs and specialized accelerators, taking in massive streams of information from its cameras and sensors, then combining them into a single, constantly changing model of what is happening around the vehicle. The system then compares this live sensor data stream with high-definition maps to locate the car’s exact position on the road with extremely high precision.
Built-in machine learning models then perform perception tasks, identifying vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists and other in-motion objects as they come, while forecasting their next moves. Based on these predictions, Waymo’s planning software, including deep-learning architectures such as VectorNet, generates a safe and law-abiding driving strategy, which is translated into precise steering, braking and acceleration commands.
What makes these systems so unique is that they’re trained on millions of miles worth of real-world driving data and billions more within large-scale simulation from Waymo’s Carcraft “simulation city” virtual environment. Before they hit the road, these vehicles have already encountered tens of thousands of rare and hazardous traffic scenarios.
Together, this mix of hardware, software, simulation and continuous learning pipeline allows Waymo vehicles to drive themselves reliably at scale on real city streets.
Are Waymo Vehicles Safe?
While Waymo has reported significantly fewer serious-injury crashes compared to human drivers, several high-profile incidents involving so-called “vulnerable road users” have recently dominated the headlines. In late 2025, for example, public outcry intensified in San Francisco after a Waymo vehicle tragically struck and killed a beloved neighborhood bodega cat. Later that year, another vehicle hit a dog, drawing widespread public attention. Other reported incidents include minor collisions with pedestrians and cyclists, though no human fatalities have been directly attributed to the company’s vehicles to date.
Overall, there have only been 117 reported injuries and two fatalities involving a Waymo vehicle (but not necessarily caused by one), with one involving a driver crashing into a stopped robotaxi.
Beyond just crashes though, Waymo’s robotaxis are increasingly used to transport children and offer women a safer option when traveling alone. The added security of no human driver on board comes at a cost, creating a de facto “pink tax” where families — particularly those prioritizing safety — often shell out more than they would for a traditional rideshare. But when data from 2017 to 2022 revealed that Uber riders reported sexual assault or sexual misconduct every eight minutes, the higher fare became a trade-off worth considering for many.
Where Is Waymo Operating?
As of early 2026, Waymo now offers fully driverless commercial rides in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin and Atlanta. The days of exclusive waitlists in the West are mostly over, as the service now offers around-the-clock curbside pickups at both Phoenix Sky Harbor and San Jose Mineta. It also started using major highways for the first time in late 2025, which finally cuts out long city-street detours, shortening cross-town trips.
To accelerate scaling, Waymo has integrated with Uber in cities like Austin and Atlanta, allowing riders to hail autonomous vehicles directly through the Uber app. The company is currently launching a “southern wave” of markets in Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando, while simultaneously testing in Detroit and Washington D.C. as it attempts to master winter weather navigation — a huge technical milestone that entails a specialized sensor suite designed to handle heavy snow and “salt spray” that used to blind autonomous cars. To support this volume, the fleet is transitioning to the 6th-generation Zeekr robotaxi, a purpose-built electric vehicle designed without a steering wheel for maximal passenger space.
Doing away with waitlists, Waymo’s customer base has evolved from early tech adopters to everyday commuters, but is still considered a luxury service, like a premium alternative to private car ownership. Waymo rides are priced higher than Uber and Lyft, averaging about $11 per kilometer compared with $8 for the other services.
Major Waymo Milestones
Waymo has become synonymous with driverless technology, setting the pace on what’s to come. Here is how it has panned out so far, starting with the most recent breakthroughs.
Waymo Launches Ojai Vehicle (January 2026)
Waymo unveils Ojai, a custom all-electric “people mover” built by Chinese automaker Zeekr. The five-passenger cab is designed without a steering wheel or pedals, and comes complete with automated cleaning systems for high-volume ride-hailing. These vehicles will feature the company’s sixth-generation hardware, packing 13 cameras, four LiDAR sensors and six radar sensors that can see up to 500 meters in any weather. Unlike the retrofitted SUVs Waymo used before, the Ojai has a low floor and wide sliding doors, making it easier for people with luggage or mobility needs to get in and out.
The company also announced international launches in London and Tokyo and set an ambitious goal to deliver one million rides per week by the end of the year
Waymo Recalls More than 3,000 Vehicles (December 2026)
Waymo recalled 3,067 of its self-driving vehicles after federal investigators found multiple incidents of its cars illegally passing stopped school buses with flashing red lights or extended stop arms. The two-month probe turned up violations in multiple cities, including freshly launched sites Austin and Atlanta, which didn’t resolve after an initial software update had been applied. Waymo said it has since fixed the issue and will continue to monitor things, pointing out that no one got hurt.
Driverless Freeway Rides Go Public (November 2025)
Waymo became the first company in the U.S. to offer fully driverless freeway rides to the public, available in Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Uber Integration and Expansion (September 2024)
Waymo deepened its partnership with Uber, which originally began in 2023 — this time allowing riders in Austin and Atlanta to hail robotaxis directly through the Uber app. The move has allowed Waymo to scale its ridership instantly by tapping into Uber’s massive, existing customer base while offloading local operations like cleaning and maintenance to Uber.
Waitlist Ends in Major Markets (June 2024)
Waymo opened its services in San Francisco (as well as Los Angeles in November 2024) to the general public, eliminating “Trusted Tester” programs and marking a shift from limited pilots to broad consumer availability.
Waymo Exits Autonomous Trucking (July 2023)
The company shut down Waymo Via, its self-driving trucking division, and reallocated engineering and financial resources entirely toward its robotaxi business.
Waymo Goes All-Electric (May 2023)
Waymo retired its Chrysler Pacifica fleet, transitioning entirely to all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles, which it still uses today.
Waymo’s 24/7 Driverless Airport Service Launches (December 2022)
Waymo became the first autonomous ride-hailing company to offer 24/7 paid, driverless rides to an airport, starting with Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Waymo Comes to San Francisco (August 2021)
Waymo launched its first “Trusted Tester” research program, inviting San Franciscans to test rides in a complex, fog-heavy city environment to help refine the service.
Waymo One Launches Commercially (December 2018)
A couple years after deploying its Easy Rider program, which invited Phoenix residents to test out its robotaxis on an experimental basis, Waymo officially launched the world’s first commercial autonomous ride-hailing service in Phoenix’s metropolitan area with a fleet of Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans. Phoenix residents were able to gain unrestricted access to Waymo’s robotaxis in 2020, marking the first time the public could hail fully autonomous rides without a safety driver or approval process.
Waymo Spins Out From Google (December 2016)
Google’s self-driving car project became an independent subsidiary under the Alphabet umbrella called Waymo, which stands for “a new way forward in mobility.”
The First Driverless Trip Is Made (December 2016)
Waymo’s Firefly prototype drove legally blind passenger Steve Mahan on a steering-wheel-free trip around Austin, Texas — a nationwide first and landmark moment for autonomous driving as a whole.
Google’s Self-Driving Project Begins (January 2009)
Under Sebastian Thrun, Google officially launched its self-driving car venture called Project Chauffeur, with the goal of having its fleet of modified Toyota Priuses complete ten uninterrupted 100-mile routes without human intervention. Throughout this “chauffeur vision” phase, Google tested its autonomous technology on several vehicles, most notably the Lexus RX450h, and reached 300,000 self-driving miles on public roads in 2012 without a single accident. This milestone helped prove that the vehicles were safe for daily employee commutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who owns Waymo?
Waymo is a standalone subsidiary of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc.
Is Waymo cheaper than Uber?
Currently, Waymo is generally more expensive than Uber, often carrying a 30 percent to 40 percent price premium because it is positioned as a high-end, luxury experience.
Where is Waymo available?
As of early 2026, Waymo offers fully public service in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin and Atlanta, with expanded peninsula service reaching San Jose.
The company is rolling out operations in Miami as part of a broader “southern wave” that will eventually bring full public service to Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando, while it undergoes mapping and testing in cities including Detroit, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, San Diego, Nashville, Denver, Minneapolis, Tampa and New Orleans. Additionally, international trials are underway in London and Tokyo as the company prepares for its first overseas launches.
What does Waymo have planned for 2026?
Waymo is entering the next phase of its commercial rollout. The company is introducing its next-generation Zeekr-built robotaxi, known as the Ojai, while rapidly expanding driverless service into roughly 20 new markets, including its first international launches in London and Tokyo. It has also set a bold objective to hit one million rides per week by the end of the year.
