Alphabet’s autonomous ride-hailing unit Waymo has completed 10 million paid trips, co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said on Tuesday, as the company doubles down on expanding operations and fending off emerging competition from Tesla.
Speaking at the Google I/O developer conference, Mawakana said the milestone reflects broader adoption of the company’s autonomous driving technology across key markets. “These are all paid trips, and they represent people who are really integrating Waymo Driver into their everyday lives,” she told CNBC.
The 10 million figure includes rides completed in Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the Phoenix metropolitan area. Waymo is currently delivering over 250,000 paid robotaxi rides each week, Alphabet reported in its April earnings disclosure.
The Waymo Driver’s officially served over 10 MILLION paid rides! 🎉 Huge thanks to our riders for being an integral part of this journey, and to our teams for continuing to redefine what’s possible. ✨ pic.twitter.com/OkYXrmziok
— Waymo (@Waymo) May 20, 2025
On Monday, the company said it had received regulatory approval to expand its autonomous ride-hailing services into additional parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, including San Jose.
Waymo is housed within Alphabet’s “Other Bets” segment, which reported a 9% drop in revenue year-over-year in the first quarter to $450 million. The division’s operating loss widened to $1.23 billion from $1.02 billion a year earlier.
Mawakana acknowledged that Waymo has yet to reach profitability but expressed confidence in the company’s trajectory. “We’re proving out that it can be a profitable business,” she said. “There’s a path to profitability.”
The company is facing potential competition from Tesla, whose CEO Elon Musk said Tuesday that it still plans to launch its own robotaxi service in Austin next month. “The plan is still on track,” Musk told CNBC, adding that Tesla would begin with approximately 10 vehicles, expanding quickly if the initial rollout goes smoothly.
Musk also indicated plans to bring Tesla robotaxis to Los Angeles and San Francisco in the future. Tesla’s approach to autonomous driving differs significantly from Waymo’s, relying largely on cameras and computer vision rather than lidar and radar-based systems.
Mawakana emphasized Waymo’s cautious strategy. “There’s probably a lot of ways it can be done, but we’re the only ones that have done it,” she said. “We’ve been doing it 24 hours a day for almost five years. And so to us, it’s really important to focus on safety, not focus on safety and then cost — not cost and then safety.”