Waymo says it has doubled its weekly paid robotaxi trips to 100,000 since May

21.08.2024

Waymo is now providing over 100,000 paid robotaxi rides weekly across the U.S., as shared by co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana on LinkedIn. This represents a significant increase from the 50,000 weekly rides reported in May.

A spokesperson for Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle venture told CNBC that San Francisco now leads in the number of trips among the cities where Waymo operates commercially, including Phoenix, Austin, and Los Angeles.

Last month, Alphabet revealed an additional $5 billion investment in Waymo, which originated as a self-driving project in 2009.

On Monday, Waymo unveiled its new “generation 6” self-driving system, which aims to expand its driverless service capabilities across more challenging weather conditions while reducing the need for expensive cameras and sensors.

Waymo, with a fleet of approximately 700 vehicles, currently operates Waymo One, the only commercial robotaxi service in the U.S.

Previously, Waymo collaborated with ride-hailing giant Uber in Phoenix, allowing Uber users to access Waymo’s service. In a statement on Tuesday, Waymo announced the expansion of its Phoenix service area by 90 square miles, making it the largest autonomous ride-hailing territory in the U.S.

This month, Waymo extended its San Francisco robotaxi service to include three new areas in California: Daly City, Broadmoor, and Colma, and is also testing its driverless vehicles on freeways in the San Francisco metro area.

While CNBC couldn’t independently verify the company’s safety claims, Waymo reported that over 14.8 million rider-only miles, the Waymo Driver was 3.5 times better at avoiding injury-causing crashes and 3 times better at avoiding police-reported crashes compared to human drivers.

In contrast to international competition from companies like Didi and Pony.ai in China, Waymo faces limited domestic rivals. GM-owned Cruise has faced setbacks that temporarily halted its driverless operations, and companies such as Uber and Ford have ended their robotaxi development efforts.

Tesla, led by Elon Musk, has long promised to convert existing vehicles into driverless cars via software updates, but has yet to deliver a car capable of functioning as a robotaxi. Tesla plans to unveil its CyberCab, a dedicated robotaxi, at an event on October 10.