Key Points
- Waymo is launching its driverless robotaxi service in Miami.
- Miami is the first of about a dozen new cities where Waymo plans to launch this year.
- Waymo is using a partnership model to handle vehicle cleaning, charging, and maintenance.
- The company plans to expand to more than 10 new cities in 2026, including London.
Waymo is bringing its driverless taxi service to Miami. The Alphabet-owned company announced on Thursday that it will start offering rides to the public, making Miami the first of about a dozen new cities where it plans to launch this year.
The service will be rolled out gradually, with Waymo inviting people from a nearly 10,000-person waiting list to start booking rides. Initially, driverless cars will operate in a 60-square-mile area that includes popular neighborhoods such as the Design District, Wynwood, and Coral Gables.
Waymo is already testing its service at Miami International Airport and plans to expand its coverage to include the airport in the future. The company is starting with a fleet of fewer than 100 cars in Miami, but it’s a significant step in its ambitious expansion plans.
As of last November, Waymo was operating about 2,500 vehicles in five other cities, with most of them in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas. The company is planning to launch in more than 10 new cities this year, including London, using a variety of different business models.
In Miami, for example, Waymo is partnering with Moove to handle the more labor-intensive parts of the business, such as cleaning, charging, and maintaining the vehicles. This partnership approach will likely be a key part of Waymo’s strategy as it scales up its operations and seeks to bring its futuristic vision of a driverless world to more cities.
