By Shamim Chowdhury
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Self-driving car company, Waymo is set to roll out its driverless robotaxi service in Miami, continuing its rapid expansion while its competitors lag behind.
As the company inches closer to its 2026 launch date, it aims to test its autonomous Jaguars in the city next year, with the goal of giving them enough time to learn the streets of Florida's largest metropolis before fare collection begins.
The Miami move follows a significant milestone just weeks earlier, when Waymo made its robotaxi service available to all riders across an 80-square-mile area in Los Angeles, marking an expansion beyond its long-established bases in Phoenix and San Francisco.
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The company is also targeting new markets in 2025, with plans to launch services in Atlanta and Austin in collaboration with ride-hailing giant Uber.
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Which cities are on Waymo's list for expanding its robotaxi service?
To manage its growing fleet of self-driving vehicles, Waymo has enlisted the help of fleet management service Moove, which will oversee the maintenance of the company's vehicles in Phoenix, where it currently operates roughly 200 robotaxis.
Moove will also manage the Miami fleet, ensuring the vehicles are ready for the challenges of Florida's roads.
Waymo's steady rise is a testament to the vision that began as Google's secret "Chauffeur" project in 2009.
By 2016, it had spun off into Waymo, with the dream of autonomous ride-hailing inching ever closer to reality.
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What is Waymo's Safety Record?
Despite being unprofitable under its parent company, Alphabet Inc., Waymo's service now completes more than 150,000 trips every week and has a consistent safety record that has bolstered investor confidence.
The company recently raised $5.6 billion to accelerate its growth, signaling that its vision for a profitable, fully autonomous ride-hailing network might not be far off.
Meanwhile, Waymo's competitors have faced significant setbacks.
Cruise, the autonomous vehicle subsidiary of General Motors, is still reeling from a high-profile accident in San Francisco last year, where one of its self-driving cars became involved in an incident, dragging a pedestrian who had been struck by another vehicle.
How are Waymo's Competitors Doing?
The incident led to a suspension of Cruise's operating license by California regulators and prompted the company to scale back its once-ambitious expansion plans.
Tesla, which has long promised a fleet of autonomous "Cybercabs," has yet to deliver on the vision.
CEO Elon Musk has touted the idea of Tesla robotaxis, and in October, he renewed his claim that these vehicles would be on U.S. roads by 2026.
However, with limited progress in fully autonomous technology, it remains to be seen whether Musk's timeline will hold.
This article contains additional reporting from The Associated Press.
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