Waymo Plans to Expand Driverless Cars to 4 More Major Cities This Year

Self-driving company Waymo added four more cities where it will service riders: Denver, San Diego, Las Vegas and Tampa. Waymo’s parent company, Alphabet, announced the expansion on Wednesday. 

Waymo’s robotaxi service is currently available in big US cities such as San Francisco, San Antonio, Orlando, Phoenix and many others. Since rolling out Waymo’s self-driving cars, Alphabet has relied on electronic vehicles that use AI to detect objects under distinct weather conditions. Its fleet is predominantly the fully electric Jaguar I-Pace, though it recently added the roomier Ojai, a modified Zeekr vehicle. 

Waymo’s newest vehicle, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, will be available with a specialist behind the wheel to validate the hardware and software before unleashing a rider-only rollout to the public.

Waymo stated in a blog post that the robotaxis being added in the new cities will initially be available only to Alphabet employees, but will be open to other riders soon. The self-driving company has made headlines since 2020 for introducing autonomous taxis to the public, but not always positively. 

In recent months, nearly 4,000 Waymos were affected by a recall by the National Highway Traffic Safety administration after the robotaxis drove into construction zones on the highway in Phoenix, Arizona and San Francisco. The NHTSA report states that the cars incorrectly prioritized other highway hazards and failed to recognize the construction zones. Additionally, in May, another recall affected Waymo after it was reported that the vehicles were driving into flooded roadways. 

Despite this debacle, Waymo is actively preparing to launch in New York, Chicago, London and Tokyo. Waymo also faces competition from Zoox, another robotaxi company owned by Amazon, which has continued to expand its operations across cities. 

A Waymo representative was not available for comment.