On the Dash:
- Waymo will begin driverless rides in San Diego, Las Vegas, Tampa, and Denver in the coming weeks.
- The expansion extends Waymo’s lead over Tesla and Zoox as the robotaxi market grows.
- The rollout follows a string of recalls and a new NHTSA warning over first-responder interference.
Waymo will soon begin fully autonomous operations in four new cities. San Diego, Las Vegas, Tampa and Denver will see driverless vehicles on the road with no human specialist behind the wheel, the company said in a blog post this week.
The operations will initially be limited to Waymo employees, but the company expects to welcome public riders by the end of the year. The four cities will join a growing network of more than 10 cities where riders can hail a fully autonomous vehicle around the clock.
Waymo widens its lead in a growing market
The expansion builds on Waymo’s lead over domestic rivals Tesla and Zoox, according to CNBC. The company’s domestic fleet included about 4,000 robotaxis as of May, using the company’s fifth- and sixth-generation automated driving systems, according to filings with U.S. auto safety regulators. The company has driven more than 20 million autonomous rides overall and is targeting one million weekly trips by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Tesla and Amazon’s Zoox are both pushing into new cities at a slower pace. For instance, Zoox is preparing to open its robotaxi service to some members of the public in Austin and Miami later this year, while Tesla is expanding beyond Austin into other parts of Texas and into Miami.
The expansion comes as Waymo faces mounting scrutiny from federal regulators. The company has issued a string of recalls and investigations over safety incidents in the past year:
- October 2025: A Waymo vehicle passed a stopped school bus in Atlanta
- December 2025: 19 illegal school bus passings in Texas
- January 2026: A Waymo vehicle struck a child near a Santa Monica elementary school
- June 2026: 3,900 robotaxis recalled after vehicles entered construction zones
This week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) sent a letter to autonomous vehicle developers demanding they fix a “pattern” of vehicles interfering with first responders. The NHTSA gave the industry until the end of July to present solutions.
New vehicle platform
Waymo is also adapting its 6th-generation Driver system to a new vehicle platform, the Hyundai IONIQ 5. The company has begun autonomously driving the IONIQ 5 fleet with a specialist present. The phase is meant to validate the technology as the company works toward fully autonomous operations on the new platform.
Waymo’s fleet has been built around the Jaguar I-PACE, an all-electric SUV that has served as the company’s primary robotaxi since it retired its Chrysler Pacifica minivans in 2023.
