Waymo will deploy a blended fleet of Jaguar I-PACE and Zeekr RT autos in Minneapolis, and a fleet of I-PACE autos in Tampa. | Supply: Waymo
Waymo LLC this week introduced plans to convey its robotaxi service to a few extra cities: New Orleans, Minneapolis, and Tampa, Fla. In every of those cities, the corporate mentioned it can start laying the groundwork for a industrial launch. Nonetheless, it didn’t give a timeline.
Just some days in the past, Waymo mentioned it’s bringing autonomous autos (AVs) to Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando, Fla. The firm at the moment operates robotaxis in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco.
Final week, Waymo introduced that its AVs would start providing rides on freeways throughout the San Francisco Bay Space, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.
“Waymo has the optionality to scale by itself and thru strategic partnerships,” Ethan Teicher, public relations supervisor at Waymo, informed The Robotic Report. “With over 100 million totally autonomous miles on public roads, and lots of of 1000’s of journeys each week, we’ve demonstrated each our means to scale and the expertise’s means to adapt to many new environments even sooner with every new metropolis we’ve launched.”
Within the U.S., Waymo robotaxis have already pushed greater than 10 million paid rides. The Mountain View, Calif.-based firm mentioned it’s now driving greater than 2 million totally autonomous miles and offering over 1 / 4 of one million rides per week.
Waymo received The Robotic Report‘s RBR50 Robotic of the Yr Award for 2025.
Waymo units the stage for explosive progress in 2026
If every part goes in accordance with Waymo’s plans, 2026 is shaping as much as be its most aggressive 12 months of progress. The corporate intends to develop or launch providers in Nashville, Las Vegas, San Diego, Detroit, Washington D.C., Miami, Dallas, Seattle, Houston, Orlando, San Antonio, and Denver within the coming years.
Cities like Detroit and Minneapolis will mark a few of Waymo’s first deployments in areas that get common snowfall. To arrange for Minneapolis’ winter climate, Waymo claimed that it has made nice strides in its efforts to function in heavier snow – together with testing in Michigan’s Higher Peninsula, California’s Sierra Nevada, and Upstate New York. Waymo can also be testing robotaxis in New York Metropolis and Boston.
“Right this moment, we function at freezing temperatures, together with with frost and hail, and we’re validating our system to navigate harsher climate situations in new cities like Detroit, Denver, and Minneapolis,” Teicher mentioned.
As well as, Waymo is planning to convey its expertise abroad. It mentioned it desires to deploy in London in 2026, and it has already deployed take a look at autos in Tokyo to be taught native site visitors patterns.
The corporate can also be beginning to deploy its autonomous autos for different functions. In October, it partnered with DoorDash to make use of Waymo autos for grocery runs, meal orders, and extra in Metro Phoenix.
Waymo rivals equivalent to Zoox and Nuro are earlier of their deployment journeys. Zoox this week introduced that it has opened robotaxi operations to the general public in San Francisco. Tesla has obtained a allow for driverless ride-hailing providers in Arizona.
