Waymo’s robot car expansion accelerates with 3 new cities

Waymo said Monday it will launch a robotaxi service in Detroit, Las Vegas and San Diego, as the Alphabet-owned company accelerates its expansion plans.

This announcement demonstrates Waymo’s recent evolution from a developer of self-driving vehicle technology to a commercial enterprise. It also follows comments from Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana, who said last week during TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 that The inevitability of company balances.

“By the end of 2026, you should expect us to be offering 1 million rides a week,” Mukana said at the time.

Waymo completed more than 250,000 trips per week as of April. The company has since added more, though the company did not share a specific number.

Waymo tested its technology for years in Silicon Valley before launching a commercial robotaxi service in Phoenix, followed by the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. Last year, the company brought robotaxis to Atlanta and Austin in partnership with Uber. Waymo also announced plans to expand its business to several new markets in 2026, including Denver, Miami, Nashville, London, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

Waymo said Monday that it plans to roll out a mix of Jaguar I-Pace and Zeekr RT self-driving cars in the three markets this week. However, the public will not have access immediately.

Waymo’s go-to-market strategy typically starts with human drivers manually operating vehicles to map city streets. The human safety factor is eventually removed, and autonomous vehicles, equipped with cameras, radar, lidar sensors as well as self-driving software, navigate on their own. After a period of driverless testing, Waymo is offering access to employees, media and some consumers before eventually opening its robotaxi service to the public.

“The introduction of Waymo and its self-driving technology is not a scientific experiment, but rather a new, safe, proven alternative designed to help our residents and the millions of visitors who come to our city get around — from the Strip and off,” Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley said in a statement. Berkeley added that the city is committed to ensuring that this technology is adopted responsibly.

Waymo is already familiar with these three cities. The company has brought its self-driving cars to Detroit, Las Vegas and San Diego before. Waymo also has an engineering team based in the Detroit area. The company says it’s prepared for snowy conditions in Detroit after spending several seasons driving across the Detroit metro area and the Upper Peninsula to expand its winter weather capabilities.

Waymo noted that its rapid expansion is due to the generalized approach to its self-driving system. This growth has helped make Waymo the dominant player in the robotaxi market. However, there are other companies also seeking to gain market share.

Zoox operates a free robotaxi service in Las Vegas, a city where it has been testing and developing its technology for years. Tesla also has a robo-taxi service, which still has humans in the passenger seat, in parts of Austin as well.