Waymo

2026

1. Flexdrive opens an 80,000-square-foot Nashville depot for Waymo

   On October 2, 2026 Flexdrive by Lyft held a ribbon-cutting for an 80,000-square-foot charging and maintenance depot in a former post office near Nashville International Airport. Waymo vehicles are scheduled to begin using the site on October 12. WSMV reported Annabel Chang of Waymo said the depot would let hundreds of vehicles join the fleet and shorten wait times, and that the site is convenient to airport testing. More than 70 full-time jobs were cited for this year.

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2. Texas DMV shows 1,154 Waymo vehicles authorized, including 359 Ojai

   CNBC reported on 3 October 2026, citing Texas Department of Motor Vehicles records as of Friday 2 October, that Waymo had 1,154 autonomous vehicles authorized for commercial use in Texas, including 359 Ojai models. The same article put Waymo at more than 500,000 paid rides a week, about 270 million fully autonomous commercial miles, and more than 4,000 driverless vehicles in US commercial operations, and said Waymo's website listed 15 US markets.

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3. Announces Bay Area transit rewards with Waymo Cash

   Waymo's blog index dated September 22, 2026 announced a transit rewards program, initially in the San Francisco Bay Area with future cities to follow, that rewards riders with Waymo Cash when they connect Waymo rides with public transit and use a Visa card. The dedicated post URL was not reachable this run, so dollar amounts and eligibility windows are not recorded.

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4. Opens teen accounts in Nashville

   Waymo said teens ages 13-17 can hail fully autonomous rides across 50 square miles of Nashville when linked to a parent or guardian account, following the Phoenix teen-account launch. The company cited trip-status sharing, automatic receipts, and specially trained Rider Support. A Boys & Girls Clubs of the Valley and Legacy Institute summer-internship study cited in the same post said commuting stress fell from 86% to 43% with Waymo access. Help pages still list teen accounts as available only in Metro Phoenix and Nashville.

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5. Texas registrations show a 49% three-week fleet surge

   Kirsten Korosec reported that about 80% of Waymo's roughly 4,000 robotaxis are in California and Texas. Using Texas vehicle registrations and the Texas Autonomous Vehicle Fleet Tracker, TechCrunch said Waymo had 1,102 autonomous vehicles registered in Texas as of September 24, 2026, up 49% in three weeks after a summer that had inched from about 600 in June to more than 700 by end of August. Ojai minivans now make up about a third of the Texas fleet. MoffettNathanson, tracking shipping records, said Waymo is on track to bring 5,100 Ojai vehicles into the U.S. by year-end. Weekly paid rides remain about 500,000 across 15 cities.

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6. Publishes 270 million-mile autonomous safety analysis

   On September 24, 2026 Waymo said its latest safety analysis covers more than 270 million miles of fully autonomous operations through the end of June 2026 across Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco. It said the Waymo Driver was involved in 82% fewer injury-causing crashes and 95% fewer serious-injury-or-worse crashes than human drivers over the same distance, estimating 841 injury-causing crashes avoided. The public Safety Impact hub still listed 220.6 million rider-only miles through March 2026.

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7. Resumes paid San Antonio rides after the April flood pause

   On September 17, 2026 Waymo said it resumed paid autonomous rides in San Antonio, including trips to and from San Antonio International Airport, after pausing passenger service following an April flood in which an empty vehicle entered a flooded lane. No one was injured. The company said it audited flood zones, added location limits in high-risk areas, adjusted weather alerts, and improved the Waymo Driver's ability to detect and leave floodwaters, work it said had already been tested in other cities that kept running this summer. Weather product lead Robert Chen said severe weather can still trigger another pause. San Antonio Current reported that new riders remain on a waitlist rather than booking like Austin Uber users.

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8. Starts fully autonomous Pittsburgh testing with a safety technician

   On September 18, 2026 Waymo Senior Director Euan Guttridge said vehicles are now driving fully autonomously on Pittsburgh roads with a safety technician behind the wheel, after PennDOT authorized autonomous testing in February while the fleet was still in the manual-driving phase that began in December 2025. Guttridge described mapping downtown and slightly beyond, then hundreds of thousands of miles of testing before trusted testers and a later public opening. Waymo has not received Pennsylvania permission to operate without a person in the driver's seat and has not set a commercial launch date.

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9. Sets 2028 target for paid robotaxi service in Singapore

   On September 18, 2026 Waymo announced it will bring paid autonomous ride-hailing to Singapore in 2028, its first Southeast Asian market and fourth confirmed international city after London, Tokyo, and Munich. An initial fleet of all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles with the fifth-generation Waymo Driver will arrive in the coming months; trained specialists will manually map the island in 2027, including monsoon weather, before seeking Land Transport Authority approval. Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow welcomed Waymo as Singapore's newest AV operator. Commercial service remains subject to LTA and CETRAN safety assessment.

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10. Allianz Partners to insure the European fleet

    On September 16, 2026 Waymo and Allianz Partners announced a strategic partnership to build the insurance, claims and safety-research layer behind Waymo's European rollout, starting with its phased commercial deployment in Germany. Allianz will supply motor fleet insurance, multinational liability and product-liability programs and new insurance models designed for autonomous mobility platforms, with digital end-to-end claims handled by its Solvd Group unit and crash analysis and risk modeling from the Allianz Center for Technology; the two also intend to explore specialized recovery services for autonomous vehicles. German press reported the collaboration as an initial three-year arrangement, tied to a Munich launch targeted for the end of 2027.

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11. Sets 2027 target for fully driverless taxis in Tokyo

    On September 15, 2026 Waymo, GO, and Nihon Kotsu said they aim to launch Japan's first fully unmanned Level 4 commercial taxi service in Tokyo during 2027, starting with a small fleet and scaling toward about 100 vehicles bookable on the GO and Waymo apps. Co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said the service would be unmanned for the public from day one. Supervised mapping with Nihon Kotsu drivers has been running across seven Tokyo wards since 2025. The launch still depends on permits; Japanese rules currently require a person in the driver's seat.

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12. Opens Las Vegas robotaxi service to public riders

    On September 14, 2026 Waymo began inviting public riders in Las Vegas, its 15th U.S. metro, converting the employee-only driverless operations it began there in July. Access is rolling from more than 100,000 interest-list signups rather than fully open to anyone with the app. The launch fleet is dozens of Ojai minivans covering the Strip south of Highway 589 into Boulder Junction plus Allegiant Stadium, Chinatown, UNLV and Spring Valley, a nearly 24-mile area that Waymo said will scale. The Nevada Transportation Authority has authorized Waymo to operate up to 1,000 AVs in Clark County.

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13. San Francisco robotaxi stop after loaded firearm detected

    Shortly before 4 a.m. on September 3, 2026, a Waymo in San Francisco's Outer Richmond pulled over and alerted police after detecting a terms-of-service violation involving a firearm. Officers conducted a high-risk stop, recovered a loaded AR-style ghost gun plus suspected marijuana and mace spray, and booked two juvenile passengers into juvenile hall. Waymo confirmed the vehicle to the Los Angeles Times and said it cooperated fully; the investigation remains open.

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14. Uber and Wayve open supervised London robotaxi service first

    On September 3, 2026 Uber and UK startup Wayve began offering paid trips in London using Wayve's camera-and-radar AV2.0 stack in Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles, with licensed TfL safety drivers still in the front seat and no geofence. The Verge reported it as the first paid autonomous ride-hailing offer in the city, ahead of Waymo's still-planned fully driverless London launch by the end of 2026 and a Lyft-Baidu test in Brent. Wayve started with about 15 TfL-registered cars; Uber said the safety drivers will be phased out later, subject to regulation.

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15. Waymo rides go live on the Lyft app in Nashville

    On September 9, 2026 Lyft said Waymo robotaxis can be booked in its Nashville app, the first U.S. market where the same driverless Jaguar I-Pace fleet is available on both the Waymo and Lyft apps. Trips that start and end inside the roughly 60-square-mile central service area (Downtown, North Nashville and Germantown, East Nashville, Midtown, South Nashville) carry no extra charge on Standard, Priority, Wait & Save, or Extra Comfort. Flexdrive will open an 80,000-square-foot depot in October, adding more than 70 local jobs.

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16. Seeks first-ever debt financing: $3B+ from Pimco, Blackstone, Sixth Street

    Bloomberg reported September 2, 2026 that Waymo is in the final stages of arranging more than $3 billion in unrated debt - its first-ever debt raise - from lenders including Pacific Investment Management Co. (Pimco), Blackstone, and Sixth Street Partners, advised by Goldman Sachs, at a spread of more than 500 basis points over the benchmark rate. Until now Waymo has funded its expansion entirely through Alphabet-led equity rounds (most recently $16B in February 2026 at a $126B valuation); the shift to debt reflects the rising capital needs of scaling the fleet and AI compute as Waymo pushes toward 1 million weekly rides. The deal remained subject to change and had not been confirmed as closed as of the report.

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17. Argues against camera-only autonomy days before Tesla's Cybercab launch

    On September 1, 2026, a week before Tesla's planned September 3 Cybercab launch event, Waymo VP of Onboard Software Srikanth Thirumalai published a blog post and gave an Axios interview arguing that a driver-assistance system cannot simply be improved into a self-driving one - calling that idea a 'false summit' - and that cameras alone, without lidar and radar, are not sufficient for safe full autonomy. The post reprised the long-running lidar-versus-camera-only debate between Waymo's multi-sensor approach (now running roughly 4,000 vehicles across 14 U.S. cities) and Tesla's vision-only strategy, which CEO Elon Musk has long defended by calling lidar a 'crutch.'

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18. Public robotaxi rides go live in Denver, San Diego and Tampa

    On September 1, 2026 Waymo opened paid, driverless robotaxi rides to the general public in Denver, San Diego and Tampa, converting the employee-only driverless operations it began there in July into full commercial service and bringing its US footprint to 14 metro areas. Denver and San Diego riders can only book the Ojai, Waymo's Zeekr-based purpose-built robotaxi; each new market starts with dozens of vehicles scaling toward hundreds over time, covering roughly 150 square miles of service territory per market. Waymo's national fleet now exceeds 4,000 vehicles delivering more than 500,000 paid rides a week, with a goal of 1 million weekly rides by year-end.

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19. OSHA data shows test drivers injured by hard braking and swerving

    Reporting published around August 27, 2026 based on OSHA filings found more than two dozen injuries - sprains, strains, whiplash and back pain, some sidelining workers for weeks or months - among Waymo and Zoox safety-test drivers in 2024 and 2025, caused by the vehicles' autonomous software braking hard or swerving suddenly. Transdev, which employs and manages Waymo's test drivers, reported 16 injuries tied to Waymo depot locations across three cities; incidents were concentrated in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. Waymo and Zoox said they take employee safety seriously and continue refining vehicle behavior based on the reports.

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20. First national ad campaign rides on World Cup exposure; WPP wins global media assignment

    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.

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21. Analysis: weekly ride count plateaus as footprint outgrows demand

    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.

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22. Imports 3,200+ Zeekr-built Ojai bodies from China despite 102.5% tariffs

    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.

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23. Arizona factory backlog signals a major Ojai fleet step-up

    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.

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24. Robotaxis snarl traffic in new Miami-area incidents

    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.

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25. Pedestrian dies after being thrown into an unoccupied Waymo's path in Dallas

    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.

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26. Dallas robotaxi service opens to the general public

    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.

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27. Court orders halt to overnight charging at two Santa Monica lots

    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.

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28. Gemini AI assistant and redesigned interface added to Ojai

    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.

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29. IIHS study finds Waymo vehicles crash far less often than human drivers

    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.

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30. Congress introduces AV Emergency Response Coordination Act after NHTSA deadline passes

    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.

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31. July 4 fireworks gridlock strands robotaxis; SF mayor demands tougher AV rules

    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.

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32. Moves to end Uber robotaxi exclusivity in Austin and Atlanta

    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.

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33. Uber–Waymo clash over D.C. AV bill as NHTSA deadline looms

    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.

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34. NHTSA orders AV firms to fix first-responder interference

    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.

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35. Expands driverless service to four new metros

    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.

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36. Uber–Waymo Phoenix partnership ends; cars pivot to DoorDash

    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.

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37. Opens Nashville robotaxi service to the public

    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.

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38. Recalls 3,871 robotaxis over freeway construction zones

    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.

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39. Launches Waymo Premier loyalty subscription

    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.

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40. Acquires Apple's Project Titan proving ground for $220M

    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.

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41. CNN investigation: red-light runs, flooded roads, and emergency-responder blockages

    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.

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42. B2U deal opens second-life pipeline for retired packs

    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.

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43. Ojai purpose-built robotaxi opens to public riders

    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.

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44. Coverage expands to ~1,400 square miles across 11 cities

    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.

45. Crosses 500,000 paid rides per week

    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.

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46. Commercial footprint reaches 11 U.S. metro areas

    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.

47. 6th-generation Waymo Driver enters fully autonomous operations

    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.

2024

1. San Francisco and Los Angeles open to all riders

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

2023

1. All-electric fleet and larger Phoenix footprint

   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.

2020

1. Fully driverless rides open to public in Phoenix

   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.

2018

1. Waymo One commercial launch in Phoenix

   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.

2016

1. Spins out from Google as Waymo

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

2015

1. First fully driverless ride on public roads

   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.

2009

1. Google Self-Driving Car Project launches

   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.