A Waymo automobile exits a charging lot on Jan. 15, 2026 in Austin, Texas.
Brandon Bell | Getty Photographs
Alphabet-owned Waymo on Tuesday opened its robotaxi service to some public passengers in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando, the corporate introduced.
With the multi-city growth, Waymo is now working its service in 10 U.S. cities, extending its lead within the North American driverless ride-hailing market. The Google sister firm is aiming to lock in loyal riders and win over skeptics, together with six in 10 U.S. drivers who mentioned they have been frightened of driverless automobiles, in response to a 2025 survey by the American Car Affiliation.
The growth comes as rivals Tesla, Amazon-owned Zoox and startups Waabi and Nuro work to convey their very own industrial robotaxi companies on-line to U.S. markets. Robotaxi leaders in Asia together with Apollo Go, which is owned by Baidu, and publicly-traded WeRide have been snapping up marketshare abroad.
Waymo mentioned “choose riders” within the 4 cities who’ve downloaded the corporate’s app will “obtain an invite to take their first native rides.” The corporate plans to ask extra passengers on a rolling foundation and make the service typically out there in these markets by the top of 2026.
Tuesday’s growth “deepens our dedication within the states of Texas and Florida,” Waymo mentioned in its weblog.
In January, Waymo opened service to riders in Miami, and the corporate started serving Austin riders final 12 months in partnership with Uber. Moreover, Waymo operates within the Atlanta, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Space markets.
For the markets launched Tuesday, Waymo will use its fifth-generation driver system in its base mannequin Jaguar I-PACE sedans. Earlier this month, the corporate started providing staff and their company rides in Waymo’s sixth-generation driver system, constructed on Geely’s base mannequin Ojai electrical automobiles, in California.
The corporate in February additionally introduced that it raised a $16 billion funding spherical that valued the corporate at $126 billion, with Alphabet serving because the “majority investor.”
On the finish of January, Waymo was working simply over 3,000 autonomous autos, in response to filings with the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration. The auto security regulator has initiated investigations into the way in which the corporate’s autos behave round faculties and college buses.
The corporate has additionally confronted criticism for the way its autos behaved throughout a December energy outage in San Francisco in the midst of a storm. Waymo autos stopped in the midst of some roads and contributed to gridlock.
In a letter to Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., this month, Waymo mentioned it was already offering over 400,000 paid journeys per week throughout the U.S. and had surpassed 20 million journeys over the lifetime of its service.
Markey has known as on Waymo, and different AV builders, to be extra clear about the way in which their driverless autos depend on people, particularly “distant assistants,” to offer their automobiles steerage from far-away customer support facilities when the autos encounter troublesome to navigate conditions.
— CNBC’s Jennifer Elias contributed reporting
