Iván Hernández Dalas: Waymo laying groundwork to bring robotaxis to 4 more cities

A rendering of the 6th-generation Waymo Driver on Hyundai’s all-electric IONIQ 5 SUV.

A rendering of the 6th-generation Waymo Driver on Hyundai’s all-electric IONIQ 5 SUV. | Source: Waymo

Waymo plans to bring its robotaxi service to Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. However, the unit of Alphabet did not specify when it plans to launch services in these cities. 

Waymo is starting manual testing with safety drivers in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis this week. Waymo started operations in Philadelphia over the summer, and after a period of manual testing, it recently shifted to autonomous testing with safety drivers still present. 

Waymo has been rapidly announcing new cities for its robotaxi service. Two weeks ago, it announced it would be bringing its technology to New Orleans, Minneapolis, and Tampa, Fla. In each of these cities, Waymo said it will begin laying the groundwork for a commercial launch. However, it did not give a timeline.

A few days before that, Waymo said it is bringing autonomous vehicles (AVs) to Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando, Fla. A week before that, Waymo announced its AVs would begin offering rides on freeways across the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.

Waymo currently operates autonomous robotaxis in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. In the U.S., Waymo robotaxis have already driven more than 10 million paid rides. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company said it is now driving more than 2 million fully autonomous miles and providing over a quarter of a million rides per week.

Waymo won The Robot Report‘s RBR50 Robot of the Year Award for 2025.

Waymo taking on snow, international deployments, and more in 2026

If everything goes according to Waymo’s plans, 2026 is shaping up to be its most aggressive year of growth. The company intends to expand or launch services in Nashville, Las Vegas, San Diego, Detroit, Washington D.C., Miami, Dallas, Seattle, Houston, Orlando, San Antonio, and Denver in the coming years.

Additionally, the four cities that Waymo announced today all have something in common: snow. Waymo’s earliest deployments were in cities with warm climates. Now, cities like Detroit and Minneapolis will mark some of Waymo’s first deployments in areas that get regular snowfall.

In addition, Waymo is planning to bring its technology overseas. It said it wants to deploy in London in 2026, and it has already deployed test vehicles in Tokyo to learn local traffic patterns.

The company is also starting to deploy its autonomous vehicles for other applications. In October, it partnered with DoorDash to use Waymo vehicles for grocery runs, meal orders, and more in Metro Phoenix.

Waymo dominates the robotaxi space in the U.S., but there are a number of companies 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. Additionally, Nuro, a Mountain View, Calif.-based startup, recently closed a Series E round of $203 million at a $6 billion valuation.

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The post Waymo laying groundwork to bring robotaxis to 4 more cities appeared first on The Robot Report.



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