Waymo robotaxis being dispatched in 10 U.S. markets with expansion in Texas, Florida
Waymo will begin deploying its robotaxis in four additional cities in Texas and Florida, expanding the territory covered by its fleet of self-driving cars to 10 major U.S. metropolitan markets.
The move to Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando, Fla., announced Tuesday, widens Waymo’s lead in autonomous driving, while rival services from Tesla and Amazon-owned Zoox are still testing their vehicles in just a few U.S. cities.
In contrast, Waymo robotaxis already provide more than 400,000 weekly trips in the six metropolitan areas where they transport passengers: Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta and Austin, Texas.
Waymo operates its ride-hailing service through its own app in every U.S. city except Atlanta and Austin, where its robo-taxis can only be called through Uber’s ride-hailing service.
The expansion into four additional markets marks an important step toward Waymo’s goal of surpassing 1 million weekly paid trips by the end of 2026. Without identifying where its robotaxis will be available next, Waymo is targeting a list of eight other cities, including Las Vegas, Washington, Detroit and Boston, while signaling that its first overseas availability will likely be London.
To help fund more robotaxis, Waymo recently raised $16 billion in the financial injection that brings the company’s value to $126 billion. That valuation has fueled speculation that Waymo could eventually be spun off from its parent company Alphabet, where it started as a secret project within Google in 2009.
Although Waymo is opening in four more cities, its robotaxis will initially only be made available to a limited number of people with its ride-hailing app in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando before the service is available to all comers in those markets.
