Waymo

Waymo begins fully autonomous operations with its 6th-generation Driver, positioning the new stack as the main platform for lower-cost, higher-scale expansion across more vehicle types and tougher weather conditions.

By April, Waymo is serving riders in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, Phoenix, San Antonio, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Waymo passes roughly 500,000 paid rides per week across its 11 U.S. metros as of late March 2026 - a tenfold increase from 50,000 weekly rides in May 2024 - keeping it on Co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana's path to 1 million weekly trips by the end of 2026.

On May 13, 2026 Waymo expands its driverless service area by more than 20% to roughly 1,400 square miles across 11 markets, starting with Miami and rolling into Austin, Atlanta, Houston, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Waymo begins offering public trips in the Ojai - its first ground-up purpose-built robotaxi, built by Zeekr and outfitted at Waymo's Arizona factory - across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, starting with about 100 vehicles on the 6th-generation Waymo Driver.

On June 4 Waymo and B2U Storage Solutions announce a multi-year supply agreement to repurpose batteries from Waymo's electric robotaxi fleet into grid-connected battery energy storage systems across California and Texas. Retired Jaguar I-PACE packs (typically still at 70-80% of original capacity) will provide grid services in those electricity markets, turning end-of-life fleet hardware into stationary storage as the ~4,000-vehicle commercial fleet scales.

A CNN investigation published June 3, 2026, drawing on public records across Waymo's 11-metro footprint, found robotaxis have run red lights, driven into closed and flooded roads, and blocked emergency responders - including a June 6, 2026 Dallas incident where a Waymo was filmed on a deputy constable's body camera partially obstructing crews at a fatal apartment fire. Federal regulators are running at least five concurrent probes, including the flooding incidents that triggered a 3,800-vehicle recall in May 2026, illegal passing of stopped school buses, and a January crash that injured a child. Waymo said incidents are isolated and that no investigation has identified a systemic safety defect.

On June 5, 2026, Waymo acquires a 5,458-acre autonomous-vehicle testing facility in Wittmann, Arizona - built by Apple for ~$125M in 2021 as the centerpiece of its now-cancelled Project Titan self-driving program - paying $220M from Route 14 Investment Partners, a Delaware entity linked to Apple. The site includes a 115-acre city-simulation course, a vehicle dynamics area, a four-mile oval track, and a dedicated freeway course; Waymo will use it for rider-only testing, motion control validation, and operational training as the commercial fleet scales toward 1 million weekly rides.

On June 11, 2026, Waymo launched Waymo Premier, its first loyalty subscription, at $29.99 a month for priority vehicle matching, 10% back in Waymo Cash ride credits, up to five free cancellations a month, and early access to new markets. The invite-only plan rolled out to tens of thousands of the company's most frequent riders in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix - Waymo's first move to build recurring revenue beyond per-ride fares as it scales toward 1 million weekly trips.

Disclosed through NHTSA on June 18, 2026, Waymo issues a voluntary recall of 3,871 fifth-generation vehicles after a software defect let robotaxis enter closed freeway construction zones and keep traveling at posted speeds. It followed 13 incidents in Phoenix and the San Francisco Bay Area - including seven SF cars on May 18 - prompting Waymo to pull its fleet from all highways on May 19 while a software fix is developed. The action is separate from the May flooded-roads recall and adds to a string of federal probes into the company's safety record.

On June 25, 2026 Waymo opens its fully autonomous ride-hailing service to the general public in Nashville, letting anyone hail a driverless trip across a roughly 60-square-mile area spanning Broadway, 12 South, Midtown, and East Nashville. The public launch follows an interest-list rollout running since April that served tens of thousands of riders, with access through the Lyft app slated for later in 2026.

In late June 2026 Waymo and Uber wound down their roughly three-year Phoenix partnership (launched October 2023), removing Waymo robotaxis from the Uber app in Phoenix and returning those vehicles to Waymo's own app and fleet. Reported by CNBC on June 29 and confirmed locally in early July, the shift also pairs the freed-up Phoenix cars with autonomous DoorDash deliveries - a tie-up that competes with Uber Eats - while Uber said it would line up a different AV partner for Phoenix. The Waymo–Uber partnerships in Austin and Atlanta, where Uber manages fleet and demand, continue unaffected.

On July 8, 2026 Waymo said it is bringing fully autonomous rides to four new U.S. markets - Las Vegas, San Diego, Tampa, and Denver - with Las Vegas vehicles operating with no human at the wheel that day and the others to follow. The rollout starts with Alphabet employees before opening to the public, extending Waymo's driverless footprint beyond its existing metros as it pushes toward 1 million paid rides per week by year-end and a planned first international launch in London.

On July 8, 2026 NHTSA sent letters to autonomous-vehicle developers demanding they fix a 'clear pattern' of driverless cars interfering with police, firefighters, ambulances and other first responders, calling the failures a 'functional insufficiency' rather than a rare edge case. Regulators cited multiple incidents - including Waymo vehicles that had to be moved by officers during emergencies - and gave companies until the end of July to explain how they will detect and respond to emergency scenes. As the largest U.S. robotaxi operator, Waymo faces the most scrutiny; the order adds to a string of federal probes into the company's safety record even as it expands to new metros.

In mid-July 2026 Waymo's regulatory pressures sharpened on two fronts. NHTSA's end-of-July deadline for AV developers to explain how they will stop interfering with first responders remained open, with regulators continuing to scrutinize the pattern but not yet opening a formal investigation. And in Washington, D.C., a July 13 hearing over an autonomous-vehicle bill exposed a lobbying clash between Waymo - which backs the measure - and Uber, which argues the framework would effectively hand Waymo a monopoly, underscoring how policy fights are becoming as consequential to robotaxi expansion as the technology itself.

On July 24, 2026 Waymo told Uber it will end their exclusive robotaxi arrangement in Austin and Atlanta and begin offering rides through its own Waymo app in both cities in January 2028, while keeping vehicles available on Uber until the existing contract expires in May 2028. The Financial Times reported the companies had held internal discussions about a broader split amid tensions, including conflicting autonomous-vehicle policy proposals they are pushing in different U.S. markets. The step follows the wind-down of the Waymo-Uber Phoenix partnership earlier in 2026 and a mid-July D.C. lobbying clash, sharpening the rivalry between the largest U.S. robotaxi operator and the largest ride-hailing platform.

During San Francisco's July 4, 2026 fireworks show, more than 30 Waymos became stuck near the viewing area and several ran out of charge and had to be towed while blocking travel lanes as crowds dispersed; separately, a Waymo caught fire after driving over lit fireworks, with no injuries reported. Mayor Daniel Lurie sent a letter to California's Secretary of Transportation on July 16 asking the state to require autonomous-vehicle operators to demonstrate they can keep traffic moving and immediately clear travel lanes, intensifying local pressure on Waymo even as it expands service.

NHTSA's end-of-July deadline for AV developers to explain how they will stop interfering with first responders passed without the agency opening a formal investigation, but pressure moved to Congress: on July 28, 2026 Rep. Kevin Mullin (D-CA) introduced the AV Emergency Response Coordination Act, which would let officials geofence autonomous vehicles away from emergency scenes, require AV companies to give first responders a 24-hour direct contact line, and direct NHTSA to set minimum national emergency-response standards. The bill follows Waymo's July 4 San Francisco gridlock and a string of incidents where officers had to move Waymo vehicles clear of emergency scenes.

On July 23, 2026 the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety published a study analyzing roughly 50 million miles of Waymo driving in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Austin between 2021 and 2024 against 222 billion human-driven miles in the same cities. It found Waymo vehicles were involved in 68% fewer police-reportable crashes per mile than human drivers overall (85% fewer single-vehicle crashes, 81% fewer injury crashes), though the advantage varied by city - from 76% fewer in Phoenix to just 4% higher in Austin, where the sample size was small. IIHS cautioned the federal AV crash-reporting system needs improvement as deployment scales. The findings landed as Waymo faced mounting federal and local safety scrutiny over first-responder interference and the July 4 San Francisco gridlock.

On July 29, 2026 Waymo announced a Gemini-powered in-car assistant for its Ojai robotaxi alongside a redesigned interface with bigger screens and buttons. Gemini answers questions about the neighborhood and points of interest, gives journey information, and handles cabin controls like air conditioning or requesting a stop, though it does not control the driving itself. Early access is live now with a broader rollout to more riders planned in the coming weeks.

An LA County Superior Court judge granted the City of Santa Monica's motion for a preliminary injunction on July 27, 2026, ruling that around-the-clock noise, lights, and traffic at Waymo's two Broadway charging and servicing lots amount to a public nuisance. Waymo is barred from operating the two sites between 11pm and 6am while the case proceeds toward an October 23, 2026 status conference, adding a local legal setback to the company's mounting regulatory scrutiny.

On August 4, 2026 Waymo ended its invitation-only waitlist in Dallas, letting anyone download the app and hail a fully autonomous ride without joining a list first. Roughly 150,000 people had signed up for the interest list since the city's commercial launch in February 2026; rides remain limited to city streets, with freeway and Dallas Love Field airport routes still in testing and no public launch date set for either.

On the night of August 7, 2026 a pedestrian crossing Maple Avenue outside a crosswalk in Dallas was struck by an SUV traveling roughly 35 mph, throwing him more than 30 feet into the path of an oncoming, unoccupied Waymo. Waymo said its vehicle detected the pedestrian about 150 feet away and slowed to roughly 5 mph before the pedestrian struck the vehicle's left rear; both vehicles stopped, and the man was taken to a hospital, where he later died. Waymo said it was 'deeply saddened' and that its Event Response Team coordinated with responding officers; police and outside safety analysts pointed to the SUV as the primary cause of the collision and described the low-speed Waymo contact as unlikely to have been preventable or the primary cause of death. No fault determination or new regulatory action specific to the incident had been announced as of mid-August 2026, but it is Waymo's first fatality involving physical contact with a person and lands amid its broader federal safety scrutiny.

Video circulating since August 8, 2026 shows two Waymo vehicles blocking each other while attempting to turn at a Miami Beach intersection, unable to proceed and stopping cross traffic, and separate footage shows Waymo vehicles snarling traffic on a Miami bridge around the same period. The incidents add to the operational and safety scrutiny Waymo has faced through 2026, including federal probes into first-responder interference and the July 4 San Francisco gridlock.

An aerial count of Waymo's Mesa, Arizona vehicle-integration facility published August 12, 2026 found roughly 953 Ojai robotaxis staged on site, with about 684 already finished and ready to deploy - up sharply from roughly 500 units counted at the same site in early June 2026. The buildup points to a step-up from the roughly 100 Ojai vehicles that had been in public service across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix through late July 2026, as Zeekr-built bodies continue arriving from China for retrofitting with Waymo's sensor suite.

Reporting published in early-to-mid August 2026 detailed how Waymo has imported more than 3,200 Zeekr-built Ojai vehicle bodies from a factory in Ningbo, China (more than 2,600 of them in 2026 alone), absorbing a 102.5% U.S. tariff on Chinese-made vehicles that otherwise blocks ordinary consumers from buying them. Waymo manages the cost by importing stripped-down, sensorless bodies valued at roughly $10,000-$20,000 each rather than finished consumer vehicles, then fits them with its autonomous driving hardware at its Mesa, Arizona facility.

An analysis published in mid-August 2026 found Waymo's roughly 500,000 weekly paid trips have held essentially flat across four public disclosures since late March 2026, even as its footprint expanded from 10 to 15 metro areas and its fleet grew from roughly 700 to roughly 4,000 vehicles. The flat trip count against a growing fleet implies per-vehicle utilization fell about 25%, to roughly 125 trips per vehicle per week versus about 167 in May 2025, raising the bar for Co-CEO Mawakana's goal of 1 million weekly rides by year-end 2026.

Waymo aired its first national U.S. ad campaign in July 2026 during a FIFA World Cup broadcast, built around a safety message for its self-driving platform. Operating in six World Cup host cities during the tournament, Waymo gave rides to fans attending roughly a third of all matches, completing more than 90,000 trips to stadiums and official watch parties, supporting 400+ fan events, and welcoming over 200,000 first-time riders. Building on that push, Waymo awarded WPP its media planning and buying assignment for North America and EMEA on August 14, 2026, with WPP set to lead strategy for some of Waymo's first international city launches.

Waymo opens both San Francisco and Los Angeles to anyone who downloads the Waymo app, moving both cities beyond waitlists and trusted-tester access.

Waymo transitions its Waymo One fleet to the all-electric Jaguar I-PACE and expands Metro Phoenix to 180 square miles by connecting Downtown Phoenix, the East Valley, and Scottsdale.

Opens fully driverless (no safety driver) Waymo One rides to the general public in the Phoenix East Valley - a global first for commercial robotaxi operations.

Launches Waymo One, the world's first commercial autonomous ride-hailing service, in the Phoenix metro area. Initially operates with safety drivers, then expands to fully driverless rides.

Google's self-driving car project becomes Waymo, a standalone company under Alphabet. John Krafcik becomes the first CEO.

Completes the world's first fully autonomous ride on public roads in Austin, Texas, with a blind passenger and no steering wheel or pedals in the vehicle.

Google begins its self-driving car project under Sebastian Thrun, building on technology from the DARPA Grand Challenge. Early prototypes use modified Toyota Prius and Lexus vehicles.