Waymo is entering 3 more cities: Minneapolis, New Orleans, and Tampa

Waymo has three new cities in its sights as it continues to expand across the United States: Minneapolis, New Orleans, and Tampa.

The company said on Thursday that it will begin manually driving its vehicles in those cities “in the coming days”, before testing and validating its driverless technology, before launching a commercial robotaxi service in each.

These cities join a growing list of locations where Waymo has launched or plans to launch its robotaxis. The Alphabet-owned company already offers surface street rides And highways He works in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix, and also lives in Austin and Atlanta.

In 2026, Waymo plans to expand to Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, San Antonio, San Diego, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. It is also testing in New York City, and plans to offer commercial flights internationally starting in London and Tokyo.

However, the new cities announced Thursday may present some unique challenges for Waymo. Minneapolis may have the harshest winters of the cities Waymo has selected yet. Snow could challenge Waymo’s perception set, and the lack of traction would give its automated driving system some extra work to do. Meanwhile, New Orleans has a lot of narrow, one-way streets that are heavily pedestrianized — especially in the French Quarter.

As Waymo has expanded, it has worked with partners in a number of cities to help operate its fleets. Its vehicles are running Uber app in Austin and Atlanta; African mobility and fintech company Moove took over Operations in Phoenix (It will do the same in Miami), and Avis Budget Group will do it Fleet Management in Dallas. It’s not immediately clear whether Waymo will rely on similar partnerships in new cities.

Waymo is so far ahead of other players when it comes to expanding into new cities. Amazon-owned Zoox is offering free rides in its custom-built robotaxi in Las Vegas, and letting members of its early rider program take rides in San Francisco while it waits Necessary exemption from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to begin full commercial operations.

Meanwhile, Tesla is trying to expand its emerging robotaxi service, which still has safety monitoring devices in the driver’s seat. This week the company acquired… Allows To start offering trips in Arizona, in addition to Austin and San Francisco.