Waymo’s Skyrocketing Ridership In One Chart

Waymo is now providing 500,000 paid robotaxi rides each week crossed 10 U.S. cities, nan institution shared successful a post connected X this week. The eye-popping fig is reflective of nan Alphabet-owned company’s accelerated commercialized description . But it’s Waymo’s complaint of maturation successful ridership and markets that offers a much compelling story. 

In little than 2 years, nan company’s mean play paid robotaxi trips person grown tenfold, from 50,000 per week successful May 2024 to 500,000 per week today. Over that aforesaid two-year timespan, Waymo has expanded wrong its first markets of Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles — and beyond them to Austin, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. Those 7 cities successful nan Sun Belt were each added successful conscionable nan past year.

Waymo’s robotaxi fleet has besides grown, though nan institution has guarded those numbers and seldom provides updates. Data provided successful December 2025 to nan National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration shows nan institution had 3,067 robotaxis equipped pinch its 5th procreation self-driving system. The institution still uses that “over 3,000” fleet number today. That could soon alteration pinch nan introduction of its 6th procreation self-driving system, which will debut connected nan Zeekr minivan, known arsenic Ojai, and nan Hyundai Ioniq 5. 

The alternatively dependable 3,000-fleet figure, mixed pinch maturation successful play paid rides, suggests that Waymo is squeezing much retired of each robotaxi. That utilization fig is peculiarly important because quiet Waymo vehicles roaming San Francisco aliases elsewhere don’t make money and increase congestion. 

That maturation does travel pinch challenges. Waymo has received much scrutiny successful caller months from nan nationalist and regulators. For instance, NHTSA and nan National Transportation Safety Board are investigating nan forbidden behaviour of Waymo robotaxis astir schoolhouse buses. Meanwhile, San Francisco metropolis officials person raised concerns astir really nan institution handles stuck robotaxis, including Waymo’s occasional usage of police and firefighters to clear its vehicles.

Waymo’s ridership numbers are still a sliver of Uber’s human-driven ride-hailing business. Uber completed immoderate 13.5 cardinal trips successful 2025, a fig that includes completed ride-hailing and transportation trips, according to securities filings. The closest axenic ride-hail number was shared during Uber’s August 2024 earning telephone erstwhile nan institution said it completed much than 1 cardinal mobility trips per hour.

In different words, Waymo is not nipping astatine Uber’s tires conscionable yet.

Still, pinch each month, nan company’s lead successful robotaxi rides grows wider. 

A number of companies are vying for a portion of that robotaxi pie, though galore person yet to connection a afloat autonomous ride-hailing work that charges a fee. There are immoderate Chinese robotaxi companies, including Pony.ai and WeRide, that complaint for robotaxi rides, but nary run successful nan United States.

Tesla began operating a paid robotaxi work successful Austin successful January, and while CEO Elon Musk has said nan institution is adjacent a afloat autonomous ride-hailing work successful California, it lacks immoderate of nan required permits to do so. Other companies, including Avride, Hyundai-owned Motional, and Zoox, are each pushing towards paid robotaxi services successful various markets by nan extremity of nan year.

They each person immoderate catching up to do.