Waymo Removes Safety Drivers In Miami Ahead Of 2026 Launch

Waymo is taking nan information operators retired of its fleet of robotaxis successful Miami starting today, up of a commercialized motorboat successful 2026, nan latest successful a agelong bid of steps taken this twelvemonth to grow its nationwide footprint.

The institution said successful a blog post Tuesday it will commencement offering afloat autonomous trips to labor successful Miami. Over nan adjacent fewer weeks, Waymo said it will do nan aforesaid successful Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando.

This latest move comes conscionable 1 week aft Waymo announced a awesome milestone: it is now offering paid rides connected highways successful Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix. This twelvemonth has besides seen Waymo motorboat successful Atlanta and Austin pinch big-name partners for illustration Uber, and motorboat a corporate recreation program.

Waymo’s not nan only institution trying to standard a robotaxi work successful nan United States. Amazon-owned Zoox announced earlier Tuesday morning it is astir to commencement offering free rides successful its purpose-built robotaxis to members of its early rider programme successful San Francisco. (It did nan same successful Las Vegas successful September.)

Tesla, meanwhile, has been trialing a work of its ain successful Austin for a fewer months. At 1 constituent this year, CEO Elon Musk tried to declare Tesla’s robotaxi work would beryllium disposable to half nan state by nan extremity of 2025. As of correct now, his company’s cars still person information operators successful nan driver’s seats.

Amid each that imaginable competition, Waymo is acting beautiful confident.

“We haven’t conscionable built nan technology; we’ve developed nan definitive playbook for operating autonomous fleets, crossed dozens of sites, and industry-leading end-to-end rider support,” nan institution wrote successful Tuesday’s blog post.

It will request that assurance arsenic it heads into 2026, which is shaping up to beryllium an moreover bigger twelvemonth than 2025. In summation to nan 5 aforementioned cities, Waymo plans to commencement offering rides successful Detroit, Las Vegas, San Diego, Nashville, and London. The institution is also testing successful New York City, and has a licence to support that up until astatine slightest nan extremity of nan year.

“By nan extremity of 2026, you should expect america to beryllium offering 1 cardinal trips per week,” co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said astatine TechCrunch Disrupt past month.

Waymo’s description hasn’t been flawless, though. The company’s tech is presently being probed by nan National Highway Traffic Safety Administration aft 1 of its vehicles successful Atlanta was filmed turning successful beforehand of a stopped schoolhouse bus.