Alphabet’s Waymo said on Thursday it will expand its robotaxi operations to Minneapolis, Tampa and New Orleans in the coming days, as the company accelerates the broader rollout of its autonomous mobility services across the United States.
Waymo said it will follow its established phased approach in the new markets, beginning with human-driven vehicles used for mapping and data collection. The process typically moves into supervised autonomous testing, limited public access and, ultimately, fully driverless commercial rides.
Waymo, carved out of Google’s self-driving project in 2016, is currently the only operator in the U.S. offering paid robotaxi services without safety drivers or in-vehicle attendants. A company spokesperson told Reuters that its fleet now exceeds 2,500 vehicles.
Major players including Tesla, Amazon’s Zoox and other autonomous driving firms are increasing investments in self-driving technologies. Waymo’s latest expansion underscores the intensifying competition to bring fully autonomous vehicles to market, where safety performance, technological readiness and regulatory cooperation are becoming key differentiators.
On Tuesday, Waymo began offering fully autonomous rides in Miami and said it plans to launch operations for employees in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando in the coming weeks, ahead of a wider public rollout targeted for 2026.
