Waymo Adds San Diego, Detroit and Las Vegas to Robotaxi Map

Would you choose a robotaxi with less than half the injury crash rate of human drivers?

Good news then, as Waymo, the autonomous vehicle company with the mission to be the world’s most trusted driver, is expanding its services to three more US cities: San Diego, Detroit and Las Vegas by 2026.

The company will now service its new Zeekr-built systems along with their existing Jaguar I-Pace fleet. 

The autonomous giant currently services five cities: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Atlanta and Austin and has completed over ten million fully autonomous rides to date.

Tekedra Mawakana, CEO of Waymo, says the company now serves hundreds of thousands of fully autonomous trips per week and sees a steep potential for growth.

“By the end of 2026 you should expect us to be offering one million trips per week.”

Where is Waymo now and how did it get here?

Waymo, owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company, was founded in 2009 and is widely seen as the leading autonomous car provider in the world. 

The AI powered robotaxi giant, had recently announced its arrival in London, with the service expected to open to the public in 2026. 

The company also has announced that its robotaxis are now snow-tested, informed by data from years of diverse winter weather conditions. 

Earlier this year, Waymo also began its manual testing in Japan, cementing its global ambitions.

The company has shown its ability to serve across multiple use cases with its recent partnership with DoorDash to seamlessly and efficiently deliver food orders. 

“We are excited to make everyday errands easier with the Waymo Driver, offering the added peace of mind that comes with our safe and reliable technology," says Nicole Gavel, Head of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at Waymo.

“Through our partnership with DoorDash, we leverage our proven delivery experience to provide customers with a seamless, contact-free way to get items they need, whether it’s groceries or a quick bite.”

Waymo AI Driver and 6th-gen hardware: How does Waymo work?

Before Waymo services a new region, the routes are manually driven to collect data and map each street in as much detail as possible.

This eliminates a total reliance on external data sources, such as from GPS, the signal strength of which can vary.

Manual testing also allows the Waymo Driver to gather insights from expert human drivers on the intricacies of each new street it serves. 

Waymo’s 6th generation hardware is well equipped with a suite of sensors, including 13 cameras, four lidars, six radars and sets of External Audio Receivers (EARs).

This allows the Waymo Driver to see and hear all round the vehicle through day and night, with overlapping vision that extends up to 500 metres.

The data gathered from the sensors goes through the Waymo Driver’s perception system, which uses AI to decipher what is around it. 

With over 20 million miles of real world driving data points and over 20 billion in simulations, the Waymo Driver leverages AI to predict the behaviour of objects on the road. 

The AI is capable of predicting as many possible paths each object may take and plans the best path for itself. 

With strong competitors in the autonomous market such as Tesla’s robotaxis and Amazon’s Zoox, Waymo continues to dominate the driverless race.