An autonomous-taxi company owned by Alphabet, operating the world's biggest fleet of self-driving cars. Waymo provides paid rides in five American cities—Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix and the San Francisco Bay Area—and plans to expand to Miami, Washington and London, its first international market, where it will compete directly with Uber. By April 2025 Waymo had surpassed 1m monthly active users, more than a ten-fold increase in two years. Between April and June 2025 it conducted 2.2m robotaxi trips in California—five times as many as in the same period in 2024. By late 2025 its robotaxis had captured more than a fifth of San Francisco's ride-share market. Its entry did not produce the mass job losses many had predicted: the city's "taxi and limousine service" workforce grew by 7% in 2024, with industry pay rising 14%. Robotaxis appear to be replacing private cars rather than manned taxis.
Waymo's self-driving technology is designated Level 4, meaning its vehicles can operate without direct human supervision in pre-approved areas. Its latest vehicles have 13 cameras, six radars and four lidars—more hardware than Tesla's robotaxis, which rely solely on eight cameras. In addition to receiving substantial funding from Alphabet, the company raised $5.6bn from outside investors in 2024.
Estimates for the cost of Waymo's current-generation robotaxis range from $130,000 to $200,000 each. Using the sporty Jaguar I-Pace as the starting point has not helped keep costs down. In late 2025 the company started testing the more modest Hyundai IONIQ 5, equipped with a newer generation of self-driving technology requiring fewer sensors. The cost of lidars has fallen sharply: American-made units that once cost around $100,000 are now little more than $1,000.
Augustin Wegsheider of BCG estimates that self-driving vehicles cost about $7-9 a mile to operate, compared with $2-3 for traditional ride-hailers such as Uber and $1 for personal cars. McKinsey estimates it will take a decade to bring costs below $2 a mile.
Waymos are involved in ten times fewer serious crashes than an average human driver. Research conducted by Waymo with Swiss Re showed that its robotaxis generated 88% fewer property-damage claims and 92% fewer bodily-injury claims than the average human over 25m miles of driving. But public trust is easily shattered. A grisly accident in 2023 involving a robotaxi operated by Cruise became existential after the company failed to provide full transparency during a federal investigation. General Motors, Cruise's owner, subsequently shut its robotaxi service down.
To keep utilisation high, Waymo deploys a relatively small number of cabs across several markets rather than trying to saturate one. It is also forging alliances with fleet operators, such as Avis, to handle day-to-day operations.
Under Donald Trump the Department of Transportation has said it will develop federal regulations for autonomous vehicles. But there are still myriad state-by-state rules (California has two agencies that regulate robotaxis). The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration can allow each firm to make only 2,500 non-standard cars a year. In New York the Taxi & Limousine Commission prohibits autonomous vehicles in paid for-hire services.
Competitors include Tesla's robotaxis, Amazon's Zoox, and Chinese operators including Baidu's Apollo Go and Pony.ai. Uber, with 42m MAUs, dwarfs Waymo's user base and is positioning itself as the preferred booking platform for robotaxis. In some cities, such as Phoenix, Uber already takes bookings on Waymo's behalf.
The faster I go, the behinder I get.