Waymo is gearing up to bring its robotaxi service to Miami which will accelerate an expansion that's been happening while its hobbled rivals remain in its rearview mirror.
As part of the road map unfurled Thursday, Waymo plans to begin testing its driverless Jaguars in Miami next year, giving the robotaxis time to learn their way around Florida's biggest city before they start charging for rides in 2026. The move comes less than a month after Waymo opened up its robotaxi service to anyone looking for a ride in an 80-square-mile (129-square-kilometer) expanse in Los Angeles, extending its reach beyond its two major markets in Phoenix and San Francisco.
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Waymo also has plans to launch fleets in Atlanta and Austin next year as part of a partnership with the ride-hailing leader Uber.
The growth spurred Waymo to team up with fleet management service Moove to oversee maintenance of its robotaxis in Phoenix, where it now operates about 200 vehicles. Moove also will help manage the company's robotaxis in Miami.
The steady expansion into new markets is starting to fulfill what once seemed like a fantastical dream when Google began a secret self-driving car project dubbed "Chauffeur” in 2009 that ultimately spun off as Waymo in 2016.
Although Waymo is still piling up substantial losses under its corporate parent Alphabet Inc., the service now provides more than 150,000 weekly trips without any history of catastrophic traffic accidents. That track record has increased confidence that Waymo will be able to continue to steer its robotaxis into more markets and eventually produce a steady stream of profits — an expectation that helped it recently raise $5.6 billion from Alphabet and a list of other major investors.
Meanwhile, robotaxi rival Cruise is still trying to recover from a grisly accident last year that culminated in one of its driverless cars in San Francisco dragging a jaywalking pedestrian who had been struck by a different car driven by a human. California regulators suspended Cruise's license in the aftermath and its once-ambitious expansion plans have been scaled back by its corporate parent, automaker General Motors.
Having periodically promised a fleet of Tesla robotaxis for nearly a decade, Tesla CEO Elon Musk renewed the pledge again in October when he predicted the electric carmaker's "Cybercabs" will be on U.S. roads in 2026.