Waymo

What Waymo does

Waymo develops an automated driving system it calls the Waymo Driver. It runs a ride-hailing service with no human driver in the car. The effort began in 2009 as the Google self-driving car project and was established as a company under Alphabet in 2016, according to Waymo's company page. The page lists Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov as co-chief executives.

Most of the fleet is Jaguar I-PACE electric SUVs, joined by a growing number of Ojai minivans built by Zeekr, a brand of China's Geely. The Ojai carries Waymo's sixth-generation driving system, designed to work across several vehicle types, TechCrunch reported in August 2026.

Why it matters

A TechCrunch report of September 24, 2026, counted service in 15 U.S. cities, up from three in September 2024. It put the fleet at roughly 4,000 robotaxis, about 80% of them in California and Texas, and the average at 500,000 paid rides a week. Investors valued the company at $126 billion when it raised $16 billion in February 2026. Waymo described Alphabet as its majority investor.

Waymo's Safety Impact page reports 271.3 million rider-only miles through June 2026. It says its vehicles had 82% fewer injury-causing crashes, and 95% fewer crashes involving serious injury or worse, than an average human driver covering the same distance. These are the company's calculations against human benchmarks for surface streets. A Waymo blog post from September 2026 gives a different figure, 94%, for injury-causing crashes.

Recent developments

• January 2026: A Waymo vehicle struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica on January 23. It caused minor injuries, Waymo said. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Transportation Safety Board opened investigations, TechCrunch reported.
• May 2026: NHTSA announced a recall of 3,791 Waymo vehicles after robotaxis failed to stop for flooded roads in central Texas, TechCrunch reported. An empty car was swept away in San Antonio, it said. Service in San Antonio was paused and restarted in September.
• June 2026: Waymo filed a recall report with NHTSA covering 3,871 fifth-generation driving systems. Vehicles had driven into freeway construction zones in Phoenix and the San Francisco Bay Area. Waymo restricted freeway driving and began restoring routes in late July after software updates.
• July 2026: Waymo vehicles were caught in gridlock after a July 4 fireworks show in San Francisco. The company said some ran out of charge while idling and needed a tow but declined to say how many were affected, KQED reported.
• September 2026: Las Vegas became Waymo's 15th market on September 14, initially for invited riders, per TechCrunch. On September 30, California's governor approved Senate Bill 1246, operative July 1, 2028. It allows civil penalties of up to $10,000 per vehicle when a commercial driverless vehicle obstructs emergency operations for over 30 minutes after an official requests a technician.

What to watch

• Overseas launches: Waymo says it intends to open commercial service in Singapore in 2028. TechCrunch reported in August 2026 that Waymo expects to open public service in Munich toward the end of 2027. Waymo has said it plans a commercial launch in London in 2026, TechCrunch reported.
• Federal findings: Waymo said in August 2026 it had completed its submissions in NHTSA's investigation of the Santa Monica crash. The responses NHTSA had published by then were entirely redacted.
• The Uber relationship: Uber told TechCrunch in July 2026 that Waymo intends to offer rides on its own app in Austin and Atlanta from January 2028. Uber said their contract there ends in May 2028.