What Is Waymo? A Guide to Alphabet’s Robotaxi Service

Waymo, the autonomous ride-hailing service owned by Alphabet, has scaled its operations to provide more than 500,000 autonomous rides per week as of April 2026. The company, which began as a research project within Google, has expanded its commercial availability to 11 metropolitan regions in the United States.

The service first launched public rides in Phoenix in 2020. Since then, Waymo has established a presence in multiple U.S. Cities, allowing prospective riders to hail robotaxis through the Waymo One app. In Austin and Atlanta, the company has integrated its service with the Uber app, requiring riders to toggle through the Uber interface to request a Waymo vehicle.

Pricing for Waymo rides is determined by trip distance and time, with a minimum fare applied to all trips. While the company does not disclose specific pricing data, external studies have indicated that the service is increasingly reaching price parity with competitors such as Uber and Lyft.

Technological Infrastructure and Operations

Waymo’s robotaxis are electric vehicles that utilize a combination of artificial intelligence, sensors, and mapping technology. Before entering a new region, the company deploys human-driven cars equipped with sensors to create detailed environmental maps, which the company states allows the driving system to operate more predictably.

For example, when the Waymo Driver approaches an intersection, not only can it sense a car that might cut across its path, but because of our custom maps, it also knows that vehicle has a stop sign

Waymo blog post

The vehicle sensor suite includes radar, cameras, and lidar—a laser light system used to measure depth and distance. The use of lidar has created a divide in the industry; Tesla CEO Elon Musk has described the technology as a costly crutch, arguing that autonomous driving should rely solely on cameras. Conversely, Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov has stated that a diverse sensor array allows vehicles to detect hazards that cameras might miss, such as a distant car in a dust storm or a pedestrian blocked by a bus.

Although the vehicles are autonomous, Waymo maintains a human workforce to support operations. This includes staff at robotaxi depots responsible for vehicle maintenance and charging, as well as remote support centers. As of February 2026, Waymo employed approximately 70 remote assistants worldwide. These agents provide context and information to the AI driver but do not remotely drive the vehicles; the AI remains in full control of driving functions.

Waymo does not manufacture its own cars. Instead, it retrofits vehicles from partners including Hyundai, Jaguar, and the Chinese EV company Zeekr. To support these operations, the company operates a 239,000-square-foot factory in Mesa.

Financial Growth and Global Expansion

To fund its expansion, Waymo raised $16 billion in February 2025, resulting in a valuation of $126 billion. The funding round was led by Alphabet, with additional investments from Sequoia Capital, DST Global, and Dragoneer Investment Group.

The company is currently targeting expansion into more than 20 cities. This include plans to offer public rides in London by late 2026 and the commencement of testing in Tokyo. Other targeted U.S. Markets include Washington, D.C., San Diego, Sacramento, Detroit, and Boston.

Waymo is also diversifying its business model beyond ride-hailing. In October 2025, it partnered with DoorDash to launch an autonomous delivery service in Phoenix. The company stated in April 2025 that it was in early discussions with Toyota to integrate autonomous driving technology into personally owned vehicles.

Safety Records and Public Scrutiny

Waymo maintains that its autonomous drivers are safer than humans. Data provided to the California Public Utilities Commission showed that Waymo robotaxis were involved in 419 collisions between March 2022 and March 2025. However, an analysis by Business Insider found that the collision rate dropped significantly during this period, falling from approximately 147 collisions per 100,000 rides between March and May 2022 to about 7 collisions per 100,000 rides between January and March 2025.

Waymo further claims its technology results in 79% fewer crashes involving airbag deployments and 93% fewer pedestrian crashes with injuries compared to human drivers over the same distance in its operating cities.

Despite these figures, the service has faced criticism over technical failures. In December 2025, a massive power outage in San Francisco left robotaxis stuck in intersections, clogging roadways. Waymo attributed this to a backlog of requests from vehicles seeking guidance from human operators. Other reported issues include vehicles failing to yield to school buses, a reported instance of a vehicle driving in circles, and the death of a bodega cat after being run over by a Waymo vehicle.

The Competitive Landscape

Waymo faces increasing competition from both automotive manufacturers and software firms. In June 2025, Tesla began offering supervised driverless rides using 10 to 20 cars within a geo-fenced area of Austin. Meanwhile, Amazon-backed Zoox has deployed purpose-built robotaxis without steering wheels or pedals in limited areas of San Francisco and Las Vegas, supported by a 220,000-square-foot production facility in California.

Hyundai’s Motional intends to launch a driverless service by the end of 2026. Ride-hailing platforms are forming their own partnerships; Uber has partnered with Lucid Motors and Nuro, while Lyft has collaborated with Tensor and the Ann Arbor-based May Mobility.

Internationally, driverless taxi services continue to expand in China through companies such as WeRide and Baidu’s Apollo Go.

Corporate History

Waymo originated in 2009 as the Google Self-Driving Car Project at the Google X lab, led by Sebastian Thrun and Google cofounder Sergey Brin. The project was revealed to the public in late 2010. In 2012, a self-driving Prius using Google’s software became the first such vehicle licensed by the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles.

The project spun out as an independent company under Alphabet in 2016. While it has grown significantly, it has not been immune to corporate restructuring; Waymo reduced its staff by approximately 8% during Google’s 2023 layoffs. The company continues to operate out of Mountain View, California.