Waymo is now opening its robotaxi services to the public in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. This move marks a significant acceleration in the Alphabet-owned autonomous vehicle company’s expansion plans.
The rollout will follow the company’s established pattern from previous city launches. Starting Tuesday, selected riders who have downloaded the Waymo app will receive invitations for their first rides. New riders will be added on a rolling basis, with the service eventually becoming available to anyone who downloads the app.
This expansion adds a new dimension to Waymo’s rapid growth. Just last February, the company was operating commercial robotaxi services only in Phoenix and its suburbs, parts of Los Angeles, and San Francisco. At that time, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai stated Waymo was providing more than 200,000 rides every week.
Over the past year, Waymo has significantly grown within its existing markets. In San Francisco, its service area now extends down Highway 101 through numerous towns all the way to San Jose. The company now provides service to three airports, including San Francisco International. It launched a partnership with Uber in Atlanta and Austin, expanded its operating domain to include freeways in three cities, and last month opened its robotaxi service to the public in Miami.
Waymo tends to hold back on its latest ridership numbers. The last update indicated it was providing more than 400,000 rides per week, though the current figure is likely higher.
The company shows no signs of slowing down. It plans to launch robotaxi services in several more cities this year, including Denver, London, and Washington, D.C. This expansion is supported by an additional 16 billion dollars raised in an investment round led by Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, and Sequoia Capital, which values Waymo at 126 billion dollars.
Waymo currently operates a fleet of about 3,000 robotaxis across its six markets of Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, and the San Francisco Bay Area. This fleet will likely grow with the addition of the four new cities, but not immediately. A company spokesperson said it will start with dozens of vehicles in each new city and scale up in coordination with rider demand over the coming months.
The company’s workforce will also scale with this expansion. The staff who monitor the robotaxis and respond to specific requests from the self-driving system may expand, though Waymo has not shared specifics. The company recently revealed it employs about 70 of these remote assistance workers.
All of this progress pushes toward a goal laid out by Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana last year. The company aims to serve more than one million rides per week by the end of this year and is laying the groundwork for robotaxi service in more than 20 cities. This goal remains unchanged even as the company faces increased scrutiny and investigations by safety regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation after one of Waymo’s robotaxis struck a child at low speed near a school in Santa Monica last month. The National Transportation Safety Board is also examining how Waymo robotaxis behave around school buses.