On March 14, 2024, a Waymo self-driving Jaguar taxi drove on the streets of Los Angeles, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
Waymo has its sights on the next location: the Sunshine State.
this letterThe company announced Thursday that it will hit the road in Miami. Waymo said it will first begin cruising Florida cities with human safety drivers in 2025, before opening its robotaxi service to passengers through its Waymo One app in 2026.
Expansion to Miami signals Waymo’s growing confidence in operating self-driving cars in harsh weather conditions in U.S. metropolitan areas
Waymo first conducted testing in Miami in 2019, which the company said helped improve its self-driving vehicles’ ability to navigate wet and rainy conditions.
“We have deepened our learning and understanding of Waymo Driver’s performance in adverse weather conditions,” a company spokesperson said.
Waymo will use what it learns when it returns to the city next year with the all-electric Jaguar I-PACE.
The company said its initial territory in Florida will include parts of the Miami metropolitan area, which has a population of more than 6 million.
Waymo has been rapidly expanding its operations over the past year thanks to the additional funding.
In November, the company announced it was eliminating a waiting list of about 300,000 people in Los Angeles so that anyone can use Waymo One to hail a self-driving robotaxi across nearly 80 square miles of Los Angeles County. The company’s ride-hailing service also operates citywide in Phoenix and San Francisco.
September, Waymo declare establish partnership with Uber in Austin and Atlanta. Through the agreement, Uber passengers 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 Waymo vehicles, including maintenance and infrastructure such as vehicle charging, cleaning and repairs. .
Separately, Waymo announced Thursday it will partner with travel companies Moff Manages its fleet operations, facilities and charging infrastructure in Miami and Phoenix. A Waymo spokesperson said Moove will begin managing Waymo’s Phoenix fleet in early 2025.
Waymo completed $5.6 billion in funding in October to expand its robotaxi service in the United States. Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global and T. Rowe Price.
The robo-taxi company said it currently sees more than 150,000 paid rides per week through the Waymo One app in San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles.
Waymo is currently the only self-driving car developer operating commercial robo-taxi services in several major U.S. metro areas, but competitors are closing in.
General Motors Co.’s Cruise has stopped providing service after an autonomous vehicle crashed in San Francisco, injuring a pedestrian, as it works to get its self-driving cars back on public roads.
At the same time, Tesla demonstrated the design concepts of the self-driving Cybercab and Robovan at the October event. However, Tesla still classifies the Autopilot and full self-driving software in its vehicles as “partially autonomous systems,” which require humans to be ready to steer or brake at all times. During an earnings call in October, Tesla CEO Musk said the company would launch a self-driving ride-hailing service in California and Texas as early as 2025.
SoftBank-backed Wayve is testing self-driving cars in San Francisco AmazonIts subsidiary Zoox is also testing self-driving cars without steering wheels in several cities in the United States.
watch: Waymo could benefit greatly from relaxed self-driving rules
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