Waymo, a company owned by Alphabet, is aiming for the Sunshine State as its next destination.
TakeAway Points:
- Waymo announced that it will increase the size of its fleet in Miami next year and intend to offer paid rides to residents by 2026.
- Waymo’s decision to expand into Miami demonstrates its increasing confidence in its ability to operate its self-driving cars in more severe weather conditions in major American cities.
- Thanks to more investment, Waymo has been growing its business operations at a quick pace over the past year.
Waymo’s next destination
The Alphabet-owned company announced Thursday that it will be hitting the roads in Miami. Waymo said it will first begin cruising through Florida with human safety drivers in 2025 before opening doors to riders for its robotaxi service through its Waymo One app in 2026.
The expansion into Miami is indicative of Waymo’s growing confidence in operating its self-driving vehicles in harsher weather conditions in large metropolitan areas in the U.S.
Waymo first tested in Miami in 2019, which the company said helped improve the ability of its self-driving vehicles to navigate in wet and rainy conditions.
“We deepened our learning and understanding of the Waymo Driver’s performance in adverse weather conditions,” a company spokesperson said.
Waymo will use what it learnt when it returns to the city with its all-electric Jaguar I-PACEs next year.
The company said its initial territory in Florida will include some parts of Miami’s larger metropolitan area, which has a population of more than 6 million people.
Waymo’s expansion growth
Waymo has been rapidly expanding its operations over the last year thanks to additional funding.
In November, the company announced it was removing its waitlist of about 300,000 people in Los Angeles, so anyone would be able to use Waymo One to hail a self-driving robotaxi throughout the nearly 80 square miles of Los Angeles County. The company’s ride-hailing service also operates citywide in Phoenix and San Francisco.
And in September, Waymo announced a partnership with Uber in Austin and Atlanta. Through that deal, Uber riders will be able to access Waymo’s robotaxis through the Uber app starting in early 2025, and Uber will be responsible for fleet management and operations of the Waymo vehicles, including maintenance and infrastructure, such as vehicle charging, cleaning, and repairs.
Waymo partners with Moove
Additionally, Waymo on Thursday announced that it will partner with mobility company Moove to manage its fleet operations, facilities, and charging infrastructure in both Miami and Phoenix. Moove will begin managing Waymo’s Phoenix fleet in early 2025, a Waymo spokesperson said.
Waymo closed a $5.6 billion funding round in October to expand its robotaxi service across the U.S. The autonomous vehicle venture’s parent company, Alphabet, which also owns Google, led the funding round alongside earlier backers, including Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global and T. Rowe Price.
The robotaxi company said it now sees more than 150,000 paid rides per week via the Waymo One app across San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles.
Waymo is the only autonomous vehicle developer that currently operates a commercial robotaxi service in several major metro areas across the U.S., but competitors are looming.
GM-owned Cruise is working on bringing its autonomous vehicles back into use on public roads after discontinuing its services following an accident where one of its self-driving cars injured a pedestrian in San Francisco.
Tesla, meanwhile, showed off design concepts for a self-driving Cybercab and Robovan at an event in October. However, Tesla still classifies the Autopilot and Full Self-Driving software in its vehicles as “partially automated driving systems,” which require a human to be ready to steer or brake at all times. In an October earnings call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company will launch a self-driving ride-hailing service in California and Texas as early as 2025.
SoftBank-funded Wayve is testing its autonomous vehicles in San Francisco, and Amazon-owned Zoox is also testing its self-driving cars, which do not feature steering wheels, in several U.S. cities.
