Waymo is removing safety operators from its fleet of robo-taxis in Miami starting today, ahead of a commercial launch in 2026, the latest in a long line of steps taken this year to expand its footprint nationwide.
The company told a blog post On Tuesday, it will begin offering fully autonomous travel to workers in Miami. In the coming weeks, Waymo said it will do the same in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando.
This latest move comes just a week after Waymo announced a major milestone: It’s now offering paid freeway rides in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix. This year, Waymo also rolled out in Atlanta and Austin with big-name partners like Uber and launched a corporate ride-hailing program.
Waymo isn’t the only company trying to scale a robotaxi service in the United States. Amazon-owned Zoox announced earlier Tuesday morning that it will begin offering free rides on its specially designed robotaxis to members of its early rider program in San Francisco. (He did the same in Las Vegas in September.)
Tesla, meanwhile, has been testing a service of its own in Austin for a few months. At one point this year, CEO Elon Musk tried to claim that Tesla’s robotaxi service would be available in half the country by the end of 2025. For now, his company’s cars still have safety operators in the driver’s seats.
Amidst all this potential competition, Waymo is acting with great confidence.
“We haven’t just built the technology, we’ve developed the definitive playbook for operating autonomous fleets, across dozens of locations, and industry-leading end-to-end rider support,” the company wrote in Tuesday’s blog post.
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It will need that confidence as it heads into 2026, which is shaping up to be an even bigger year than 2025. In addition to the five aforementioned cities, Waymo plans to start offering rides in Detroit, Las Vegas, San Diego, Nashville, and London. The company is also conducting testing in New York and has permission to maintain it until at least the end of the year.
“By the end of 2026, you should expect to be delivering 1 million trips per week,” co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said at TechCrunch Disrupt last month.
Waymo’s expansion hasn’t been flawless, however. The company’s technology is currently being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after one of its vehicles in Atlanta was filmed swerving in front of a stopped school bus.
