Waymo, the robotaxi service born from Google's self-driving car project, now operates in 11 US cities and plans to launch globally. The company, a subsidiary of Alphabet, has been giving commercial rides to the public since 2020 and recently reported providing more than 500,000 autonomous rides per week.
The service faces mounting competition from Tesla, Zoox, and Motional, all of which are launching rival autonomous ride-hailing offerings. Waymo's rapid expansion reflects Alphabet's bet that autonomous mobility will become a major revenue driver, but the technology's real-world performance remains under a microscope.
Waymo regularly publishes data showing its robotaxis are safer, but the firm has also encountered high-profile incidents. A massive power outage left Waymo vehicles stuck in intersections, the robotaxis have failed to yield to school buses, and a bodega cat died after being run over by a Waymo — drawing criticism over safety and responsiveness.
As Waymo scales to new cities and countries, it must navigate regulatory hurdles and public trust issues. Each mishap provides ammunition for skeptics who argue autonomous systems are not yet ready for widespread deployment, potentially slowing adoption and inviting stricter oversight.
Counter-arguments note that Waymo's own safety data shows improvement over human drivers, and that isolated incidents are inevitable in any new transportation system. Critics, however, say these events reveal fundamental flaws that could erode public confidence.