Waymo Achieves Major Milestone with 200,000 Weekly Robotaxi Rides

Waymo has announced a significant achievement in its autonomous ride-hailing service, reaching over 200,000 paid rides per week, as noted by Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai on Thursday.

What Happened: In a social media post on X, Pichai shared the exciting news about Waymo One, stating, "Waymo One is now serving 200k+ paid trips each week across LA, Phoenix, and San Francisco – that's 20 times growth in less than two years!"

Pichai also hinted at future expansions, mentioning that operations will soon include Austin, Atlanta, and Miami.

In October, Waymo reported that it was providing over 150,000 paid rides weekly, signifying an addition of 50,000 rides over a span of just four months.

The company began offering paid autonomous rides to the public in 2020, originally focusing its services in Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Additionally, Waymo plans to expand its offerings to Austin and Atlanta in 2025 through a collaboration with Uber, and it also intends to launch services in Miami as part of its 2026 rollout via the Waymo One app.

Why It Matters: Waymo currently stands as the leading company in the autonomous vehicle sector within the United States. Despite competition from General Motors' Cruise, which had been on par with Waymo until 2023, Cruise has since suspended its operations due to safety incidents and ultimately ceased activities in late 2024.

Tesla Inc. is also gearing up to introduce an autonomous ride-hailing service in Austin, planning a launch in June.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has ambitions to deploy its Model Y and Model 3 vehicles, fitted with full self-driving (FSD) technology. Although the FSD technology presently requires driver oversight, Musk is confident it can evolve to support fully autonomous driving.

Musk indicated that Tesla would be rolling out robotaxis in cities across America beyond Austin by the end of the year.

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Waymo, robotaxi, Pichai