Waymo will remove safety operators from its Miami robotaxi fleet starting today ahead of commercial launch in 2026. This is the latest in a long series of steps taken this year to expand its U.S. footprint.
The company announced in a blog post Tuesday that it will begin offering fully self-driving trips to employees in Miami. Waymo announced it will do the same in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando over the next few weeks.
This latest move comes just a week after Waymo announced a major milestone: offering paid rides on freeways in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix. This year also saw Waymo launch operations and corporate travel programs in Atlanta and Austin with major partners including Uber.
Waymo isn’t the only company looking to expand its robotaxi service in the United States. Zoox, an Amazon company, announced early Tuesday morning that it will begin offering free rides in its private robotaxis to members of its early rider program in San Francisco. (A similar thing was done in Las Vegas in September.)
Meanwhile, Tesla has been testing its service in Austin for several months. At one point this year, CEO Elon Musk tried to claim that Tesla’s robotaxi service would be available in half the country by the end of 2025. For now, his company’s cars still have a safety operator in the driver’s seat.
Amid potential competition, Waymo is acting quite confidently.
“We didn’t just build the technology. We developed a definitive strategy for self-driving vehicle operations across dozens of locations and industry-leading end-to-end passenger support,” the company said in a blog post Tuesday.
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We need that confidence heading into 2026, which is shaping up to be an even bigger year than 2025. In addition to the five cities mentioned above, Waymo also plans to start offering rides in Detroit, Las Vegas, San Diego, Nashville, and London. The company is also conducting trials in New York City and has been given permission to continue testing through at least the end of the year.
“Expect us to be able to offer one million trips a week by the end of 2026,” co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana told TechCrunch Disrupt last month.
However, Waymo’s expansion hasn’t been perfect. The company’s technology is currently under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after one of its vehicles was filmed swerving in front of a stopped school bus in Atlanta.
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