Google’s Self-Driving Car unit Waymo plans to launch fully autonomous ride-hailing in Washington, D.C. next year and has applied for a permit to operate in New York, the company said.
While awaiting approval, it will manually drive in Manhattan with trained specialists.
The announcement came as Waymo reported its autonomous vehicles have driven over 100 million miles without a human driver, doubling its total in six months. The company said this experience would support its continued expansion in U.S. cities.
Waymo operates around 1,500 vehicles and offers robotaxi services in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta, and other Bay Area locations. It now logs over two million autonomous miles each week and has completed more than 10 million paid trips, up from 5 million at the end of 2024.
The company’s first million fully driverless miles were reached in January 2023. It hit 25 million by July 2024, 50 million by the end of that year, and 71 million by March 2025.
Tesla entered the robotaxi market last month with a limited rollout of self-driving Model Y vehicles in Austin. CEO Elon Musk said Tesla will expand to more U.S. cities by the end of 2025 and begin services in the San Francisco Bay Area within two months.
Amazon’s Zoox is also testing a fully autonomous vehicle without steering wheels or pedals and plans to launch in Las Vegas this year.
Some companies, including General Motors’ Cruise, have exited the market due to regulatory delays, high costs, and federal investigations.
Waymo began as a self-driving project at Google in 2009 and became an independent company in 2016.
