Waymo on Thursday announced that it will soon begin manually driving its robotaxi vehicles in Minneapolis, Tampa and New Orleans. The company will start operating test drives in that trio of towns with human drivers in hopes of launching its driverless robotaxi service there as soon as next year, the company said.
If Waymo does begin operating in those markets next year, that would bring the robotaxi company’s list of 2026 planned expansions to 15 cities.
On Tuesday, Waymo said it plans to start operating its vehicles with no human driver in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Miami and Orlando in the coming weeks, with plans to open service to the public there next year. The company has also previously announced plans to expand to Detroit, Denver, Las Vegas, Nashville, San Diego, Washington, D.C., and London in 2026.
A spokesperson said Waymo will wait until its technology is validated in Minneapolis, Tampa and New Orleans before committing to 2026 service launches.
“2026 is very much on the table, but we’ll be led by our safety framework,” Waymo spokesperson Ethan Teicher said in an email.
With more than 250,000 weekly paid trips, Waymo’s robotaxi service currently operates in Austin, the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, Atlanta and Los Angeles markets. The company has provided more than 10 million paid rides since launching in 2020.
