Welcome to the Waymo World Cup

Waymo, Alphabet A subsidiary offers robotaxi rides in 11 U.S. metros right now, and says it’s ready to Football World Cup. Match attendees can catch up Without a driver Flights to six of 16 North American venues: stadiums in Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and the San Francisco Bay Area.

The sprawling football event is expected to attract around 6.5 million visitors to the continent over more than a month, and could serve as an exciting close-up for Europe. Waymo. The company says it offers half a million paid rides a week, which is paltry compared to the likes of ride-hailing giants Uber and LyftBut what’s even more impressive is to remember that objects don’t have motors.

Waymo plans to offer the service in 20 more markets this year alone, with international expansions in London and Tokyo on the horizon. Meanwhile, the Waymo app is available in app stores in 13 countries, including Germany, Great Britain, India and Japan, and in 15 different languages. For passengers who have not yet boarded Robots in ChinaThis event will likely represent their first opportunity to ride without a driver.

The World Cup could also lead to some obvious missteps. Between its triumphant service expansions, Waymo has had something of an unfortunate spring so far. It has had to stop service in many markets due to malfunctions Cars struggled to cope with flooded streets (A problem that already existed It led to recall programs nationwide). In May, Waymo also suspended its highway rides, which since late last year have allowed riders to reach some destinations more quickly. The company says it is concerned about how its cars operate Interact around construction zones. Waymo spokesperson Sandy Karp says the company is working with local authorities to prepare for the World Cup and surrounding events.

If all goes as planned, well, the Waymo World Cup — the first autonomous vehicle World Cup — should look a lot like other World Cups. Self-driving cars promise to do a lot of things: give people who can’t get driver’s licenses new opportunities for transportation; reshaping the economics of travel; Drivers fired from work. But when it comes to special events, self-driving cars suffer from the same limitations as self-driving cars. Thousands and thousands of people want to arrive somewhere and then leave at the same time. After all, there are only so many ways to go around it.

“There will never be a completely orderly process without congestion,” says Adam Millard Ball, a professor of urban planning at the University of California, Loskin School of Public Affairs in Los Angeles. “Engineering-wise, you’re not going to be able to get pickup trucks through everyone’s front door.” The future is many things, but traffic is not one of them.

This is the same type of problem facing other types of cars. That’s why rides and deliveries for Waymo’s closely related cousins, like Uber and Lyft, look the way they do. Since taxis, once a gray market, began spreading across the United States in the late 2000s, many cities and institutions—airports and stadiums among them—have found ways to “tame,” if not control, on-demand transportation. One time, Uber picked someone up on the sidewalk, just outside the baggage claim area. Now most airports direct taxi passengers to specialized parking lots.

Same thing with stadiums in fact, many of these special pickup areas now host Waymos. “The City of Santa Clara is currently partnering with rideshare services to set up service zone locations around Levi’s Stadium during event days,” Lt. Eric Lagergren of the Santa Clara Police Department told WIRED in an email — event days here including the eight or so home games that occur each season. “Santa Clara’s ridesharing and public transit sites will remain active for all 2026 FIFA World Cup matches hosted by the city of Santa Clara,” he said. Same routine, different sporting event.