Waymo will deploy a mixed fleet of Jaguar I-PACE and Zeekr RT vehicles in Minneapolis, and a fleet of I-PACE vehicles in Tampa. | Source: Waymo
Waymo LLC this week announced plans to bring its robotaxi service to three more cities: New Orleans, Minneapolis, and Tampa, Fla. In each of these cities, the company said it will begin laying the groundwork for a commercial launch. However, it did not give a timeline.
Just a few days ago, Waymo said it is bringing autonomous vehicles (AVs) to Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando, Fla. The company currently operates robotaxis in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco.
Last week, Waymo announced that its AVs would begin offering rides on freeways across the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.
“Waymo has the optionality to scale on its own and through strategic partnerships,” Ethan Teicher, public relations manager at Waymo, told The Robot Report. “With over 100 million fully autonomous miles on public roads, and hundreds of thousands of trips every week, we’ve demonstrated both our ability to scale and the technology’s ability to adapt to many new environments even faster with each new city we’ve launched.”
In the U.S., Waymo robotaxis have already driven more than 10 million paid rides. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company said it is now driving more than 2 million fully autonomous miles and providing over a quarter of a million rides per week.
Waymo won The Robot Report‘s RBR50 Robot of the Year Award for 2025.
Waymo sets the stage for explosive growth in 2026
If everything goes according to Waymo’s plans, 2026 is shaping up to be its most aggressive year of growth. The company intends to expand or launch services in Nashville, Las Vegas, San Diego, Detroit, Washington D.C., Miami, Dallas, Seattle, Houston, Orlando, San Antonio, and Denver in the coming years.
Cities like Detroit and Minneapolis will mark some of Waymo’s first deployments in areas that get regular snowfall. To prepare for Minneapolis’ winter weather, Waymo claimed that it has made great strides in its efforts to operate in heavier snow – including testing in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, California’s Sierra Nevada, and Upstate New York. Waymo is also testing robotaxis in New York City and Boston.
“Today, we operate at freezing temperatures, including with frost and hail, and we’re validating our system to navigate harsher weather conditions in new cities like Detroit, Denver, and Minneapolis,” Teicher said.
In addition, Waymo is planning to bring its technology overseas. It said it wants to deploy in London in 2026, and it has already deployed test vehicles in Tokyo to learn local traffic patterns.
The company is also starting to deploy its autonomous vehicles for other applications. In October, it partnered with DoorDash to use Waymo vehicles for grocery runs, meal orders, and more in Metro Phoenix.
Waymo competitors such as Zoox and Nuro are earlier in their deployment journeys. Zoox this week announced that it has opened robotaxi operations to the public in San Francisco. Tesla has obtained a permit for driverless ride-hailing services in Arizona.
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