Waymo LLC
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryAutonomous cars
PredecessorGoogle Self-Driving Car Project
Founded
  • 2004 (2004) (as Stanford Self-Driving Car Team)
  • January 17, 2009 (January 17, 2009) (as the Google Self-Driving Car Project)
  • December 13, 2016 (2016-12-13) (as Waymo)
Founder
  • Sebastian Thrun
  • Anthony Levandowski
HeadquartersMountain View, California, United States
Area served
Key people
  • Dmitri Dolgov (co-CEO)
  • Tekedra Mawakana (co-CEO)
Number of employees2,500 (2025)[1]
Parent
Websitewaymo.com

Waymo LLC (/weɪmoʊ/ WAY-moh) is an American autonomous driving technology company headquartered in Mountain View, California. It is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company. Waymo operates commercial robotaxi services available to the public in Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles,[2] Atlanta, Austin,[3] and Miami.[4] As of December 2025, it operates over 450,000 rides per week, and by February 2026 had logged 200 million miles on public roads driven fully autonomously.[5][6]

The company traces its origins to the Stanford Racing Team, which competed in the 2005 and 2007 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenges.[7] Google's development of self-driving technology began in January 2009. After almost two years of road testing, the project was revealed in October 2010.[8][‡ 1][9] In December 2016, the project was renamed Waymo and spun out of Google as part of Alphabet.[‡ 2] In October 2020, Waymo became the first company to offer service to the public without safety drivers in the vehicle.[10][11][12][13]

Waymo is run by co-CEOs Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov.[14] The company raised US$5.5 billion in multiple outside funding rounds[15] by 2022 and raised $5.6 billion funding in 2024.[16] In February 2026, Waymo raised a $16 billion funding round that valued the company at $126 billion.[17]

In January 2026, The National Transportation Safety Board and NHTSA opened investigations into Waymo's robotaxis for recurring incidents of illegally passing stopped school buses, and one incident where a Waymo hit a child who ran out from behind a parked SUV in a school zone.[18][19][20]

History

Ground work

Google's development of self-driving technology began on January 17, 2009,[‡ 4] at Google X lab, run by co-founder Sergey Brin.[21] The project was launched at Google by Sebastian Thrun, the former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL) and Anthony Levandowski, founder of 510 Systems and Anthony's Robots.[22][23]

The initial software code and artificial intelligence (AI) design of the effort started before the team worked at Google, when Thrun and 15 engineers, including Dmitri Dolgov, Mike Montemerlo, Hendrik Dahlkamp, Sven Strohband, and David Stavens, built Stanley and Junior, Stanford's entries in the 2005 and 2007 DARPA Challenges. Later, aspects of this technology were used in a digital mapping project for SAIL called VuTool.[24][25][8] In 2007, Google acqui-hired the entire VuTool team to help advance Google's Street View technology.[24][25][‡ 1][26]

As part of Street View development, 100 Toyota Priuses[23] were outfitted with Topcon digital mapping hardware developed by 510 Systems.[27][25][23]

In 2008, the Street View team launched project Ground Truth,[28] to create accurate road maps by extracting data from satellites and street views.[29]

Pribot

In February 2008, a Discovery Channel producer for the documentary series Prototype This! phoned Levandowski.[25][30] The producer requested to borrow Levandowski's Ghost Rider, the autonomous two-wheeled motorcycle Levandowski's Berkeley team had built for the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge[7] that Levandowski had later donated to the Smithsonian.[31] Since the motorcycle was not available, Levandowski offered to retrofit a Toyota Prius as a self-driving pizza delivery car for the show.[25]

As a Google employee, Levandowski asked Larry Page and Thrun whether Google was interested in participating in the show. Both declined, citing liability issues.[7] However, they authorized Levandowski to move forward with the project, as long as it was not associated with Google.[25][32] Within weeks Levandowski founded Anthony's Robots to do so.[24] He retrofitted the car with light detection and ranging technology (lidar), sensors, and cameras. The Stanford team behind the Stanley car provided its code base to the project.[7] The ensuing episode depicting Pribot delivering pizza across the San Francisco Bay Bridge under police escort aired in December 2008.[33][22][32][34]

The project success led Google to greenlight Google's self-driving car program in January 2009.[7] In 2011, Google acquired 510 Systems (co-founded by Levandowski, Pierre-Yves Droz and Andrew Schultz), and Anthony's Robots for an estimated US$20 million.[27][24][33][22][35] Levandowski's vehicle and hardware, and Stanford's AI technology and software, became the nucleus of the project.[7]

Project Chauffeur

After almost two years of road testing with seven vehicles, the New York Times revealed the existence of Google's project on October 9, 2010.[8] Google announced its initiative later the same day.[9]

Starting in 2010, lawmakers in various states expressed concerns over how to regulate autonomous vehicles. A related Nevada law went into effect on March 1, 2012.[36] Google had been lobbying for such laws.[37][38][39] A modified Prius was licensed by the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in May 2012.[40] The car was "driven" by Chris Urmson with Levandowski in the passenger seat.[40] This was the first US license for a self-driven car.[36]

In January 2014[41] Google was granted a patent for a transportation service funded by advertising that included autonomous vehicles as a transport method.[42] In late May, Google revealed an autonomous prototype, which had no steering wheel, gas pedal, or brake pedal.[‡ 5][43] In December, Google unveiled a Firefly prototype that was planned to be tested on San Francisco Bay Area roads beginning in early 2015.[44][45]

In 2015, Levandowski left the project. In August 2015, Google hired former Hyundai Motor executive, John Krafcik, as CEO.[46] In fall 2015, Google for the first time to non-employees provided a ride in a fully autonomous vehicle in Austin, Texas. The passenger was a blind man. It was the first entirely autonomous trip on a public road. It was not accompanied by a test driver or police escort.[47][48] The car had no steering wheel or floor pedals.[49] By the end of 2015, Project Chauffeur had covered more than a million miles.[27]

Google spent $1.1 billion on the project between 2009 and 2015. For comparison, the acquisition of Cruise Automation by General Motors in March 2016 was for $500 million, and Uber's acquisition of Otto in August 2016 was for $680 million.[50]

Waymo

In May 2016, Google and Stellantis announced an order of 100 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans to test the self-driving technology.[51] In December 2016, the project changed its name to Waymo and spun out of Google as part of Alphabet.[‡ 2] The name was derived from "a new way forward in mobility".[52] In May 2016, the company opened a 53,000-square-foot (4,900 m2) technology center in Novi, Michigan.[‡ 6]

In February 2017, Waymo sued Uber and its subsidiary self-driving trucking company, Otto, alleging trade secret theft and patent infringement. The company claimed that three ex-Google employees, including Anthony Levandowski, had stolen trade secrets, including thousands of files, from Google before joining Uber.[53] The alleged infringement was related to Waymo's proprietary lidar technology,[54][55] Google accused Uber of colluding with Levandowski.[56] Levandowski allegedly downloaded 9 gigabytes of data that included over a hundred trade secrets; eight of which were at stake during the trial.[57][58] An ensuing settlement gave Waymo 0.34% of Uber stock,[53] the equivalent of $245 million. Uber agreed not to infringe Waymo's intellectual property.[59] Part of the agreement included a guarantee that "Waymo confidential information is not being incorporated in Uber Advanced Technologies Group hardware and software."[60] In statements released after the settlement, Uber maintained that it received no trade secrets.[61] In May, according to an Uber spokesman, Uber had fired Levandowski, which resulted in the loss of roughly $250 million of his equity in Uber, which almost exactly equaled the settlement.[53] Uber announced that it was halting production of self-driving trucks through Otto in July 2018, and the subsidiary company was shuttered.[62] In 2020, Levandowski pled guilty to one of 33 charges, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.[63]

Waymo began testing minivans without a safety driver on public roads in Chandler, Arizona, in October 2017.[64] In 2017, Waymo unveiled new sensors and chips that are less expensive to manufacture, cameras that improve visibility, and wipers to clear the lidar system.[65] At the beginning of the self-driving car program, they used a $75,000 lidar system from Velodyne.[66] In 2017, the cost decreased approximately 90 percent, as Waymo converted to in-house built lidar.[67] Waymo has applied its technology to various cars including the Prius, Audi TT, Chrysler Pacifica, and Lexus RX450h.[68][69] Waymo partners with Lyft on pilot projects and product development.[70]

Waymo started testing in Phoenix without safety drivers in November 2017.[71]

In March 2018, Jaguar Land Rover announced that Waymo had ordered up to 20,000 of its I-Pace electric SUVs at an estimated cost of more than $1 billion.[72][73] In late May 2018, Alphabet announced plans to add up to 62,000 Pacifica Hybrid minivans to the fleet.[74][75] Also in May 2018, Waymo established Huimo Business Consulting subsidiary in Shanghai.[76]

In October 2018, the California Department of Motor Vehicles issued a permit for Waymo to operate cars without safety drivers. Waymo was the first company to receive a permit for day and night testing on public roads and highways. Waymo announced that its service would include Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Los Altos, and Palo Alto.[77] In July 2019, Waymo received permission to transport passengers.[78]

In December 2018, Waymo launched Waymo One in Phoenix, transporting passengers. The service used safety drivers to monitor some rides, with others provided in select areas without them. In November 2019, Waymo One became the first autonomous service worldwide to operate without safety drivers.[79][80][81] Waymo One launched in San Francisco, beginning with a "trusted tester" rollout.[82] In March 2022, Waymo began offering rides for Waymo staff in San Francisco without a safety driver.[83]

In April 2019, Waymo announced plans for vehicle assembly in Detroit at the former American Axle & Manufacturing plant, bringing between 100 and 400 jobs to the area. Waymo used vehicle assembler Magna to turn Jaguar I-PACE electric SUVs and Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans into Waymo Level 4 autonomous vehicles.[84][85] Waymo subsequently reverted to retrofitting existing models rather than a custom design.[86]

2020s

In March 2020, Waymo Via was launched after the company's announcement that it had raised $2.25 billion from investors.[87] In May 2020, Waymo raised an additional $750 million.[88] In July 2020, the company announced an exclusive partnership with auto manufacturer Volvo to integrate Waymo technology.[89]

In April 2021, Krafcik was replaced by two co-CEOs: Waymo's COO Tekedra Mawakana and CTO Dmitri Dolgov.[90] Waymo raised $2.5 billion in another funding round in June 2021,[91][92] with total funding of $5.5 billion.[15] Waymo launched a consumer testing program in San Francisco in August 2021.[93][94]

In May 2022, Waymo started a pilot program seeking riders in downtown Phoenix, Arizona.[93][94] In May 2022, Waymo announced that it would expand the program to more areas of Phoenix.[95] In 2023, coverage of the Waymo One area was increased by 45 square miles (120 km2), expanding to include downtown Mesa, uptown Phoenix, and South Mountain Village.[96][97][98]

In June 2022, Waymo announced a partnership with Uber, under which Waymo will integrate its autonomous technology into Uber's freight truck service.[99] Plans to expand the program to Los Angeles were announced in late 2022.[100] On December 13, 2022, Waymo applied for the final permit necessary to operate fully autonomous taxis, without a backup driver present, within the state of California.[101]

In January 2023, The Information reported that Waymo staff were among those affected by Google's layoffs of around 12,000 workers. TechCrunch reported that Waymo was set to kill its trucking program.[102]

In July 2024, Waymo began testing its sixth-generation robotaxis which are based on electric vehicles by Chinese automobile company Zeekr, developed in a partnership first announced in 2021.[103][104] They were anticipated to reduce costs, at a time when Waymo was operating at a loss.[103]

In October 2024, Waymo closed a $5.6 billion funding round led by Alphabet, aimed at expanding its robotaxi services, bringing its total capital to over $11 billion.[16] Around that time, the New York Times described Waymo as being "far ahead of the competition", in particular after Cruise had to suspend its operations after an accident in 2023.[103]

Also in November 2025, the permit area in Northern California was expanded to include Santa Rosa and Sacramento. The Southern California permit area was expanded to stretch from the Mexican border to Ventura County.[105] These new permit areas were approved by the California Department of Motor Vehicles.[106] The permit area of the DMV is larger than the operating area. The operating area is slated to get expanded to cover San Diego in mid-2026.[106]

In February 2026, Waymo raised a $16 billion funding round that valued the company at $126 billion, to fund further expansion into new markets.[17] Bloomberg reported that $13 billion of that came from Alphabet.[107]

Lobbying

Waymo regularly lobbies public officials and regulators throughout US cities and states, to encourage updates to laws so self-driving vehicles can operate in those locations.[108][109] In 2024, Waymo spent $1.7 million on lobbying in the US.[108] As of January 2026, Waymo has spent $1.8 million since 2019 on lobbying efforts in the State of New York.[110]

In February 2026, Waymo company representatives spoke to the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and requested that the federal government create uniform nationwide standards for autonomous vehicle deployment.[6] The company stated that unless the US reduces regulations that hamper innovation, US companies will lose the trillion dollar global AV market to Chinese companies.[6]

Services

In 2017, Waymo highlighted four specific business uses for its autonomous tech: robotaxis, trucking and logistics, urban public transportation, and passenger cars.[111]

Robotaxis

Waymo currently serves select cities in the United States, and has announced future expansion into Japan and the United Kingdom.

The service is accessed in most locations by using the Waymo iOS app[112] or Android app[113]; Waymo service in Austin and Atlanta is optionally available from Uber. Once a Waymo vehicle is provided, riders push a button to "start ride", and have optional "help", "lock", and "pull over" buttons, if needed. The ride usually completes without pressing any button after starting the ride. The car’s steering wheel turns as the car makes turns, and a passenger may sit in the right-front passenger seat, if desired. Passengers see on a screen a display of some of the stream of information gathered by the car's sensors, including pedestrians.[114]

As of November 2025, Waymo has 2,500 robotaxis in service.[115] As of December 2025, Waymo provided 450,000 paid rides per week.[5] By the end of 2026, Waymo aims to increase this to 1 million taxi rides a week. The company is laying the groundwork to expand to over 20 cities, including London and Tokyo, up from the current six.[116]

United States

Service areas in the United States[‡ 7]
State Metro area Status Launch date Area served[‡ 8] Ref.
Arizona Phoenix Full commercial service October 8, 2020 List [‡ 9]
California Los Angeles Full commercial service November 12, 2024 List [‡ 10]
Sacramento Service announced — — [‡ 11][117][118]
San Diego Service announced Mid-2026 — [‡ 12][119][120]
San Francisco Bay Area Full commercial service June 25, 2024 List [‡ 13]
Colorado Denver Service announced — — [‡ 14][121][122]
Florida Miami Waitlist service 2026 List
  • Bal Harbour
  • Bay Harbor Islands
  • Brownsville
  • Coral Gables
  • Coral Terrace
  • Glenvar Heights
  • Hialeah
  • Indian Creek
  • Miami
  • Miami Beach
  • Miami Shores
  • Miami Springs
  • North Bay Village
  • North Miami
  • North Miami Beach
  • South Miami
  • Sunny Isles Beach
  • Surfside
  • West Miami
 [‡ 15][123][124]
Orlando Waitlist service 2026 List
  • Meadow Woods
  • Oak Ridge
  • Orlando
  • Southchase
  • Tangelo Park
  • Williamsburg
 [‡ 16]
Tampa Testing — — [‡ 17][125][126]
Georgia Atlanta Full commercial service with Uber June 24, 2025 List
  • Atlanta
  • Brookhaven
  • Decatur
  • Druid Hills
  • East Point
  • North Decatur
  • North Druid Hills
 [127]
Illinois Chicago Service announced — — [‡ 18]
Louisiana New Orleans Testing — — [‡ 19][125][128]
Maryland Baltimore Testing — — [‡ 20][129][130]
Massachusetts Boston Service announced — — [‡ 21][131][132]
Michigan Detroit Service announced 2026 — [‡ 22][119][133]
Minnesota Minneapolis Testing — — [‡ 23][125][134]
Missouri St. Louis Testing — — [‡ 24][130][135]
Nevada Las Vegas Service announced Summer 2026 — [‡ 25][119][136]
New Jersey New York Testing — — [137][138]
New York Buffalo Testing — — [‡ 7][139][140]
New York Testing — — [‡ 26][141][142]
North Carolina Charlotte Service announced — — [‡ 27]
Pennsylvania Philadelphia Testing — — [‡ 28][143][144]
Pittsburgh Testing — — [‡ 29][130][145]
Tennessee Nashville Service announced 2026 — [‡ 30][146][147]
Texas Austin Full commercial service with Uber March 4, 2025 List
  • Austin
  • Manchaca
  • Rollingwood
  • San Leanna
  • Shady Hollow
  • Sunset Valley
  • West Lake Hills
 [‡ 31]
Dallas Waitlist service 2026 List
  • Dallas
  • Highland Park
  • University Park
 [‡ 16]
Houston Waitlist service 2026 List [‡ 16]
San Antonio Waitlist service 2026 List
  • Alamo Heights
  • Balcones Heights
  • Castle Hills
  • Olmos Park
  • San Antonio
  • Terrell Hills
 [‡ 16]
Washington Seattle Testing — — [‡ 32][121][148]
Washington, D.C. Service announced 2026 — [‡ 33][149][150]
Airport service in the United States
State Airport Status Launch date Ref.
Arizona Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Full commercial service November 1, 2022 [‡ 34]
California San Francisco International Airport Waitlist service 2026 [‡ 35][151][152]
San Jose International Airport Full commercial service December 1, 2025 [‡ 36][‡ 37]
Florida Miami International Airport Testing — [‡ 38][153][154]
New Jersey Newark Liberty International Airport Testing — [137][138]
Texas Dallas Love Field Testing — [‡ 39]
San Antonio International Airport Testing — [‡ 39]

Other potential expansion:

Japan

Service areas in Japan[‡ 7]
City Status Launch date Ref.
Tokyo Testing 2026 [‡ 41][159][160]

United Kingdom

Service areas in the United Kingdom[‡ 7]
Country City Status Launch date Ref.
England London Testing September 2026 [‡ 42][161][162]

Potential expansion to other countries

Public transit

In September 2025, Waymo and the city of Chandler, Arizona announced that Waymo would be integrated into Chandler's public microtransit service.[167][168][169][170]

Trucking

In 2020 Waymo launched a self-driving truck development division designated as Waymo Via, to work with OEMs to integrate its technology into commercial vehicles.[171][87][‡ 43] The company began testing Class 8 tractor-trailers[172] in 2018 in Atlanta,[172] expanding in 2019 to southwest shipping routes across Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.[171] The company opened a trucking hub in Dallas, Texas in 2021.[173] It partnered with Daimler to integrate autonomous technology into a fleet of Freightliner Cascadia trucks.[174] Waymo operated 48 Class 8 autonomous trucks with safety drivers.[175]

Waymo tested its technology in commercial delivery vehicles with United Parcel Service.[176][177] In July 2020 Waymo and Stellantis expanded their partnership, including the development of Ram ProMaster delivery vehicles.[178]

In July 2023, Waymo announced that it was moving away from commercial development of self-driving trucks to focus on the ride-hailing Waymo business, and shuttered the Waymo Via trucking program. The vast majority of employees who were on Waymo's trucking team moved to other roles within the company.[179]

Delivery

Waymo has partnered with Uber Eats and DoorDash to deliver food.[‡ 44][180][181][182][183]

Technology

Google has invested heavily in matrix multiplication and video processing hardware such as the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) to augment Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) and Intel central processing units (CPUs).[184] Much of this is kept as trade secrets, but transformer technology is likely involved.[185]

Waymo manufactures a suite of self-driving hardware developed in-house.[186] This includes sensors and hardware-enhanced vision system, radar, and lidar.[71][186] Sensors give 360-degree views while lidar detects objects up to 300 metres (980 ft) away.[71] Short-range lidar images objects near the vehicle, while radar is used to see around other vehicles and track objects in motion.[71]

Waymo's deep-learning architecture VectorNet predicts vehicle trajectories in complex traffic scenarios. It uses a graph neural network to model the interactions between vehicles and has demonstrated state-of-the-art performance on several benchmark datasets for trajectory prediction.[187]

Waymo Carcraft is a virtual world in which Waymo simulates driving conditions.[188][189] The simulator was named after the video game World of Warcraft.[188][189] With Carcraft, 25,000 virtual self-driving cars navigate through models of Austin, Texas; Mountain View, California; Phoenix, Arizona, and other cities.[188]

As of November 2025, most of Waymo's robotaxis are customized Jaguar I-Pace cars. Waymo plans to introduce Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Zeekr Ojai cars.[190][191]

Morgan Stanley estimated the total vehicle cost at over $120,000 as of October 2024.[192] Other costs include technicians that monitor rides, service personnel, and real estate for storing and charging the vehicles.[103]

During testimony to the United States Senate in February 2026, Waymo's chief safety officer confirmed that the company employs remote assistance workers in the United States and the Philippines for times when its robotaxis encounter problems they cannot solve on their own.[193] The company stated that the remote workers do not drive the vehicles, and only provide guidance to the robotaxi, which can accept or reject the guidance.[193]

Operations, efficiency, and safety

From California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) data[194], as of September 2025, Waymo delivered 4.75 million Passenger Miles Traveled (PMT) monthly, which required 6.57 million Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT). This is over a 3 fold growth from September 2024 in both PMT and VMT, with the ratio staying roughly equal.

In ~70% of the trips, only 1 passenger is in the car, while 4.6% of requested trips are cancelled. ~56% of vehicle distance traveled contains one or more passengers, while ~44% of miles the AVs are empty. Together, this results in an average passenger occupancy of ~0.75.[194]

In 2024, Waymo published a study they did with insurance company Swiss Re which found that by the end of 2024, when Waymo's robotaxis had autonomously driven 25 million miles, the company was facing two potential claims for bodily injury (accidents where the Waymo was at fault).[195][196] The two companies estimated that over the same number of miles, human drivers, in the same locations that Waymo has been operating, would have generated 26 bodily injury claims, a 90% reduction.[195][196] For property damage claims, the reduction was similar: Waymo logged nine vs. an estimated 78 for human drivers.[195][196] Experts have noted that the sample size (25M miles driven) is very small, (less than 1%) of the 3 trillion miles logged annually by human drivers in the US.[196]

Incidents and controversies

Accidents

In July 2021, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) started requiring autonomous vehicle companies to report any accidents which result in injury or property damage that occur within 30 seconds of the vehicle operating in autonomous mode.[197] As of February 17, 2026, the (NHTSA) has logged 1,710 accidents (cumulative since July 2021), involving Waymo vehicles.[198] From July 2021 to January 2025, Waymo's vehicles have been involved in about 30 accidents with injuries, though the NHTSA reports do not ascribe fault.[199]

Some examples of Waymo accidents:

School bus incidents

In September 2025, a Waymo in Atlanta was recorded illegally passing a stopped school bus.[244][245] Georgia State Representative Clint Crowe and State Senator Rick Williams criticized Waymo, with Williams stating his support for higher fines for self-driving cars.[246]

Vandalism

In 2018, after the death of Elaine Herzberg — the first recorded case of a pedestrian fatality involving a self-driving car — there were several cases of Waymo cars being vandalized.[256]

In 2023, the San Francisco group Safe Street Rebel used a practice called "coning" to trap Waymo and Cruise cars with traffic cones as a form of protest after claiming that the cars had been involved in hundreds of incidents.[257]

In February 2024, during Lunar New Year celebrations in Chinatown, San Francisco, a mob of vandals attacked, graffitied, and set fire to a Waymo car. No one was injured.[258][259]

In February 2024, a pair of Waymo passengers described an attack by an onlooker who attempted to cover the car's sensors.[260]

In July 2024, Waymo sued two people who allegedly vandalized their cars.[261]

During the June 2025 Los Angeles protests against mass deportation, several Waymo cars were set on fire when riots broke out. Officials including California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass condemned the destruction, attributing it to extremists infiltrating otherwise-peaceful protests. Use of Waymo camera footage by police has been cited as a possible reason for the targeting of Waymo cars.[262]

Other incidents

See also

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  257. Kerr, Dana (August 26, 2023). "Armed with traffic cones, protesters are immobilizing driverless cars". NPR.
  258. Javaid, Maham (February 12, 2024). "San Francisco crowd sets self-driving car on fire". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286.
  259. Quintana, Sergio (February 13, 2024). "Authorities work to identify people who set Waymo car on fire in San Francisco". NBC Bay Area.
  260. Pena, Luz (February 8, 2024). "SF couple describes feeling 'trapped' riding in Waymo driverless car that was being attacked". ABC7 San Francisco.
  261. Dave, Paresh (July 22, 2024). "Waymo Is Suing People Who Allegedly Smashed and Slashed Its Robotaxis". Wired.
  262. de Guzman, Chad; Sutherland, Callum (June 9, 2025). "Why Waymo's Self-Driving Cars Became a Target of Protesters in Los Angeles". Time.
  263. Pruitt-Young, Sharon (October 16, 2021). "Self-driving Waymo cars gather in a San Francisco neighborhood, confusing residents". NPR.
  264. "Dead-End SF Street Plagued With Confused Waymo Cars Trying To Turn Around 'Every 5 Minutes'". CBS News. October 14, 2021.
  265. Hawkins, Andrew J. (October 14, 2021). "Waymo's autonomous vehicles keep getting stuck in a dead-end street in San Francisco". The Verge.
  266. Edwards, Benj (August 13, 2024). "Self-driving Waymo cars keep SF residents awake all night by honking at each other". Ars Technica.
  267. Goard, Alyssa (August 18, 2024). "San Francisco neighbors say Waymo honking continues, global audience follows along live". KNTV.
  268. Larson, Amy (August 19, 2024). "Driverless Waymo cars still honking despite software fix". KRON-TV.
  269. "Man's ride to airport takes turn after Waymo gets stuck driving in circles". KGO-TV. January 7, 2025.
  270. "LA tech entrepreneur nearly misses flight after getting trapped in robotaxi". The Guardian. January 6, 2025. Waymo told the Guardian the "looping event" had been addressed by a regularly scheduled software update.
  271. Schlepp, Travis (April 8, 2025). "Waymo gets stuck in California Chick-fil-A drive-thru". KTLA.
  272. Council, Stephen (April 9, 2025). "Confused Waymo shuts down Calif. restaurant's drive-thru". SFGate.
  273. Korosec, Kirsten (April 9, 2025). "A Waymo robotaxi got trapped in Chick-fil-A drive-through". TechCrunch.
  274. Garcia, Ariana (April 21, 2025). "Passengers say they were trapped inside driverless vehicle in Austin". Chron.com.
  275. Willits, Mitchell (April 22, 2025). "Woman and friends trapped in driverless car, TikTok video shows. Waymo responds". Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
  276. McCord, Cory (April 23, 2025). "Woman says she got trapped inside driverless taxi in Austin". KHOU.
  277. Blankstein, Andrew; Siemaszko, Corky (December 2, 2025). "Driverless Waymo vehicle goes through tense police stop in L.A." NBC News. The robotaxi operated by Waymo was driven just a few feet away from a Los Angeles police felony stop downtown following a vehicle chase early Sunday
  278. "Way-No-No-No!!! Drives Into Police Standoff". TMZ. December 1, 2025.
  279. Good, Anna (December 2, 2025). ""Incredible": Waymo robotaxi casually drives into active LAPD standoff in viral video". The Daily Dot.
  280. Swan, Rachel (December 8, 2025). "Waymo traffic jam goes viral: Robotaxis butt heads on dead-end S.F. street". San Francisco Chronicle.
  281. Fernandez, Lisa; Kafton, Christien (December 9, 2025). "Waymo standoff in San Francisco goes viral, company responds". KTVU.
  282. Swan, Rachel (December 10, 2025). "A woman's Waymo rolled up with a stunning surprise: A man hiding in the trunk". San Francisco Chronicle.
  283. Baker, Alex (December 10, 2025). "Viral video of man hiding in trunk of Waymo raises safety concerns". KRON-TV.
  284. Shahan, Zachary (December 16, 2025). "Waymo Gets Paralyzed By Venice Canal Parade". CleanTechnica.
  285. Weedston, Lindsey (December 17, 2025). ""Yes you can!": Venice residents cheer Waymo car stuck at a canal bridge during annual parade". The Daily Dot.
  286. Wilkins, Joe (December 17, 2025). "Waymo Paralyzed by Parade, Blocks Traffic for 45 Minutes". Futurism.
  287. Thompson, Kelsey (December 16, 2025). "'Just another day': Waymo caught driving wrong way on I-35 frontage road". MySA.
  288. Landymore, Frank (December 18, 2025). "Waymo Spotted Driving Wrong Way Down Busy Street". Futurism.
  289. Marcin, Tim (December 19, 2025). "Driverless Waymo seemingly drives straight into oncoming traffic in viral video". Mashable.
  290. Rao, Sonia A.; Morales, Christina; Sassoon, Alessandro Marazzi (December 21, 2025). "Waymo Suspended Service in San Francisco After Its Cars Stalled During Power Outage". The New York Times.
  291. Keane, Isabel (December 22, 2025). "Waymo suspends service in San Francisco after causing traffic jams during blackout". The Independent.
  292. Baron, Ethan (December 22, 2025). "Waymo robotaxis blink out and block traffic in SF blackout. What happens in the next emergency?". The Mercury News.
  293. Reagan, Kevin; Golightly, Chase (January 7, 2026). "Waymo car seen driving on light rail tracks in Phoenix". KPNX.
  294. Castillo, Mickaela (January 8, 2026). "Waymo passenger flees after car drives on Phoenix light rail tracks". KTVK/KPHO-TV.
  295. Uwaoma, Philip (January 10, 2026). ""That Was Close": Passenger Flee for Safety as Waymo Robotaxi Drives onto Train Tracks". Yahoo News.
  296. Cobler, Nicole (March 1, 2026). "Waymo robotaxi blocks EMS responding to Austin mass shooting". Axios.
  297. Evans, Elizabeth (March 2, 2026). "Austin 6th Street shooting: Waymo caught on video blocking responding ambulance". KTBC.
  298. Pelisek, Christine; Thayer, Colton (March 2, 2026). "Waymo Vehicle Allegedly Blocks Emergency Crews Responding to Austin Mass Shooting". People.
  299. Bedigan, Mike (March 10, 2026). "Terrifying moment Waymo stops between railway tracks and stop arm as train passes by inches away". The Independent.
  300. Brolley, Tara (March 11, 2026). "Waymo driverless cars stop between railroad and crossing gates". WOAI-TV.
  301. Blood, Christian (March 12, 2026). "Waymo restricting some routes for autonomous cars after viral video shows one stopped at railroad crossing". KTSA.

Primary sources

In the text, these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):

  1. Thrun, Sebastian (October 9, 2010). "What we're driving at". The Official Google Blog.
  2. "Journey". Waymo.
  3. "The Test Driven Google Car". April 30, 2011 – via YouTube.
  4. Krafcik, John (January 17, 2019). "Our #tenyearchallenge has been building the world's most experienced driver. Thanks to two visionary @Google characters for getting us started & to the @Waymo One riders in #Phoenix we're serving. HBD #Waymo pic.twitter.com/Ew4fdXjM7c". John Krafcik's official Twitter account. Archived from the original on January 23, 2019.
  5. A First Drive. May 27, 2014. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021 – via YouTube.
  6. Krafcik, John (October 27, 2017). "Michigan is Waymo's winter wonderland". Medium.com.
  7. "Where Waymo is driving". Waymo.
  8. "Where you can go". Waymo.
  9. "Waymo is opening its fully driverless service to the general public in Phoenix". Waymo. October 8, 2020.
  10. "Waymo One is now open to all in Los Angeles". Waymo. November 12, 2024.
  11. "Waypoint – Sacramento". Waymo. February 5, 2026.
  12. "Waypoint – San Diego". Waymo. November 3, 2025.
  13. "Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco". Waymo. June 25, 2024.
  14. "Waypoint – Denver". Waymo. September 2, 2025.
  15. "Miami, Your Waymo Ride Is Ready". Waymo. January 22, 2026. Starting today, Waymo is welcoming the first public riders into our fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Miami
  16. "Ready to Ride: Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando". Waymo. February 24, 2026. Select riders from the tens of thousands in these cities who have downloaded the Waymo app will receive an invitation to take their first local rides today. We will be inviting new riders on a rolling basis to ensure a seamless experience across our initial service areas, as we meaningfully scale our operations ahead of opening our service to everyone later this year.
  17. "Waypoint". Waymo. November 20, 2025.
  18. "Waypoint – Chicago". Waymo. February 25, 2026.
  19. "Waypoint". Waymo. November 20, 2025.
  20. "Waypoint – Baltimore". Waymo. December 3, 2025.
  21. "Waypoint – Boston". Waymo. February 5, 2026.
  22. "Waypoint – Detroit". Waymo. November 3, 2025.
  23. "Waypoint". Waymo. November 20, 2025.
  24. "Waypoint – St. Louis". Waymo. December 3, 2025.
  25. "Waypoint – Las Vegas". Waymo. November 3, 2025.
  26. "Waypoint". Waymo. August 22, 2025.
  27. "Waypoint – Charlotte". Waymo. February 25, 2026.
  28. "Waypoint – Philadelphia". Waymo. December 3, 2025.
  29. "Waypoint – Pittsburgh". Waymo. December 3, 2025.
  30. "Bringing fully autonomous rides to Nashville, in partnership with Lyft". Waymo. September 17, 2025.
  31. "Waymo is now available in Austin, only on Uber". support.google.com. March 4, 2025.
  32. "Waypoint - Seattle". Waymo. September 2, 2025.
  33. "Next stop for Waymo One: Washington, D.C." Waymo. March 25, 2025.
  34. "Making air travel more convenient at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport". Waymo. November 1, 2022.
  35. "Clear skies and autonomous Waymo rides at SFO". Waymo. January 29, 2026. We'll start by offering SFO access to a select number of riders and will gradually welcome all riders over the coming months.
  36. "Taking riders further, safely with freeways". Waymo. November 12, 2025.
  37. "We've expanded our San Francisco service area to cover more of the bay". support.google.com. December 1, 2025.
  38. "Delivering more for our riders in a year of incredible growth". Waymo. December 10, 2025. ...and we recently began offering employees fully autonomous rides at Miami International Airport with plans to go fully autonomous at other major airports soon.
  39. @waymo; (January 21, 2026). "Preparing for take off at @dallaslovefield and @satairport with employee testing! 🤠✈️ We're one step closer to making autonomous airport travel the new standard. 🚘🤖" – via Instagram.
  40. "Post". Waymo. November 21, 2025 – via LinkedIn.
  41. "Partnering with Nihon Kotsu and GO on our first international road trip". Waymo. December 16, 2024.
  42. "Hello London! Your Waymo ride is arriving". Waymo. October 15, 2025.
  43. "Waymo Via – Same Driver. Different Vehicle". Archived from the original on July 22, 2020.
  44. "Phoenix residents can now experience Uber Eats delivery with the Waymo Driver". Waymo. April 3, 2024.

Further reading


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