Waymo

Starting in 2010, lawmakers in various states expressed concerns over how to regulate autonomous vehicles. A related Nevada law went into effect on March 1, 2012. Google had been lobbying for such laws. A modified Prius was licensed by the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in May 2012. The car was "driven" by Chris Urmson with Levandowski in the passenger seat. This was the first US license for a self-driven car.

In January 2014 Google was granted a patent for a transportation service funded by advertising that included autonomous vehicles as a transport method. In late May, Google revealed an autonomous prototype, which had no steering wheel, gas pedal, or brake pedal. In December, Google unveiled a Firefly prototype that was planned to be tested on San Francisco Bay Area roads beginning in early 2015. In 2015, Levandowski left the project. In August 2015, Google hired former Hyundai Motor executive, John Krafcik, as CEO. In fall 2015, Google for the first time to non-employees provided a ride in a fully autonomous vehicle in Austin, Texas. The passenger was a blind man. It was the first entirely autonomous trip on a public road. It was not accompanied by a test driver or police escort. The car had no steering wheel or floor pedals. By the end of 2015, Project Chauffeur had covered more than a million miles.

Google spent $1.1 billion on the project between 2009 and 2015. For comparison, the acquisition of Cruise Automation by General Motors in March 2016 was for $500 million, and Uber's acquisition of Otto in August 2016 was for $680 million.

Waymo

In May 2016, Google and Stellantis announced an order of 100 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans to test the self-driving technology. In December 2016, the project changed its name to Waymo and spun out of Google as part of Alphabet. The name was derived from "a new way forward in mobility". In May 2016, the company opened a 53,000-square-foot (4,900 m2) technology center in Novi, Michigan.

In February 2017, Waymo sued Uber and its subsidiary self-driving trucking company, Otto, alleging trade secret theft and patent infringement. The company claimed that three ex-Google employees, including Anthony Levandowski, had stolen trade secrets, including thousands of files, from Google before joining Uber. The alleged infringement was related to Waymo's proprietary lidar technology, Google accused Uber of colluding with Levandowski. Levandowski allegedly downloaded 9 gigabytes of data that included over a hundred trade secrets; eight of which were at stake during the trial. An ensuing settlement gave Waymo 0.34% of Uber stock, the equivalent of $245 million. Uber agreed not to infringe Waymo's intellectual property. Part of the agreement included a guarantee that "Waymo confidential information is not being incorporated in Uber Advanced Technologies Group hardware and software." In statements released after the settlement, Uber maintained that it received no trade secrets. In May, according to an Uber spokesman, Uber had fired Levandowski, which resulted in the loss of roughly $250 million of his equity in Uber, which almost exactly equaled the settlement. Uber announced that it was halting production of self-driving trucks through Otto in July 2018, and the subsidiary company was shuttered. In 2020, Levandowski pled guilty to one of 33 charges, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Waymo began testing minivans without a safety driver on public roads in Chandler, Arizona, in October 2017. In 2017, Waymo unveiled new sensors and chips that are less expensive to manufacture, cameras that improve visibility, and wipers to clear the lidar system. At the beginning of the self-driving car program, they used a $75,000 lidar system from Velodyne. In 2017, the cost decreased approximately 90 percent, as Waymo converted to in-house built lidar. Waymo has applied its technology to various cars including the Prius, Audi TT, Chrysler Pacifica, and Lexus RX450h. Waymo partners with Lyft on pilot projects and product development.

Waymo started testing in Phoenix without safety drivers in November 2017.

In March 2018, Jaguar Land Rover announced that Waymo had ordered up to 20,000 of its I-Pace electric SUVs at an estimated cost of more than $1 billion. In late May 2018, Alphabet announced plans to add up to 62,000 Pacifica Hybrid minivans to the fleet. Also in May 2018, Waymo established Huimo Business Consulting subsidiary in Shanghai.

In October 2018, the California Department of Motor Vehicles issued a permit for Waymo to operate cars without safety drivers. Waymo was the first company to receive a permit for day and night testing on public roads and highways. Waymo announced that its service would include Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Los Altos, and Palo Alto. In July 2019, Waymo received permission to transport passengers.

In December 2018, Waymo launched Waymo One in Phoenix, transporting passengers. The service used safety drivers to monitor some rides, with others provided in select areas without them. In November 2019, Waymo One became the first autonomous service worldwide to operate without safety drivers. Waymo One launched in San Francisco, beginning with a "trusted tester" rollout. In March 2022, Waymo began offering rides for Waymo staff in San Francisco without a safety driver.

In April 2019, Waymo announced plans for vehicle assembly in Detroit at the former American Axle & Manufacturing plant, bringing between 100 and 400 jobs to the area. Waymo used vehicle assembler Magna to turn Jaguar I-PACE electric SUVs and Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans into Waymo Level 4 autonomous vehicles. Waymo subsequently reverted to retrofitting existing models rather than a custom design.

2020s

In March 2020, Waymo Via launched after the company announced it had raised $2.25 billion from investors. In May 2020, Waymo raised an additional $750 million. In July 2020, the company announced an exclusive partnership with auto manufacturer Volvo to integrate Waymo technology.

In April 2021, Krafcik was replaced by two co-CEOs: Waymo's COO Tekedra Mawakana and CTO Dmitri Dolgov. Mawakana is responsible for business operations, and Dolgov is responsible for the company's technology. Waymo raised $2.5 billion in another funding round in June 2021, with total funding of $5.5 billion. Waymo launched a consumer testing program in San Francisco in August 2021.

In May 2022, Waymo started a pilot program seeking riders in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. In May 2022, Waymo announced that it would expand the program to more areas of Phoenix. In 2023, coverage of the Waymo One area was increased by 45 square miles (120 km2), expanding to include downtown Mesa, uptown Phoenix, and South Mountain Village.

In June 2022, Waymo announced a partnership with Uber, under which Waymo will integrate its autonomous technology into Uber's freight truck service. Plans to expand the program to Los Angeles were announced in late 2022. On December 13, 2022, Waymo applied for the final permit necessary to operate fully autonomous taxis, without a backup driver present, within the state of California.

In January 2023, The Information reported that Waymo staff were among those affected by Google's layoffs of around 12,000 workers. TechCrunch reported that Waymo was set to kill its trucking program.

In July 2024, Waymo began testing its sixth-generation robotaxis, based on electric vehicles from Chinese automaker Zeekr, developed through a partnership first announced in 2021. They were anticipated to reduce costs, at a time when Waymo was operating at a loss.

In October 2024, Waymo closed a $5.6 billion funding round led by Alphabet to expand its robotaxi services, bringing its total capital to over $11 billion. Around that time, The New York Times described Waymo as being "far ahead of the competition", in particular after Cruise had to suspend its operations after an accident in 2023.

In November 2025, Waymo introduced freeway travel for select riders. Waymo paused all freeway service from May to July 2026.

In November 2025, the permit area in Northern California expanded to include Santa Rosa and Sacramento. The Southern California permit area was expanded to stretch from the Mexican border to Ventura County. These new permit areas were approved by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). The permit area of the DMV is larger than the operating area. The operating area is slated to get expanded to cover San Diego in mid-2026.

In February 2026, Waymo raised a $16 billion funding round, valuing the company at $126 billion to fund further expansion into new markets. Bloomberg reported that $13 billion of that came from Alphabet.

Lobbying

Waymo regularly lobbies public officials and regulators across U.S. cities and states to update laws so self-driving vehicles can operate there. In 2024, Waymo spent $1.7 million on lobbying in the US. In the state of New York, Waymo has spent $1.8 million since 2019 on lobbying efforts, as of January 2026. Waymo spent $2 million in lobbying in the US in the first six months of 2026.

In February 2026, Waymo representatives spoke to the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and asked the federal government to create uniform nationwide standards for autonomous vehicle deployment. The company stated that unless the US reduces regulations that hamper innovation, US companies will lose the trillion-dollar global autonomous vehicle market to Chinese companies.

Other potential expansion:

Australia: Waymo has contacted Transport for NSW and the federal Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts.

Canada: Waymo has lobbied the federal government, the provincial governments of British Columbia and Ontario, and the city of Toronto.

France: Waymo established a subsidiary in June 2026.

Germany:

Berlin: As of September 2026, Waymo is laying the groundwork for expansion.

Netherlands: Waymo established a subsidiary in June 2026.

South Korea: As of March 2026, Waymo is in contact with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

Spain: Waymo established a subsidiary in June 2026.

Switzerland: Waymo established a subsidiary in August 2026.

United States:

California:

Waymo communicated with officials from the city of Oakland and Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport in September 2025.

As of August 2026, Waymo has DMV and CPUC permission to drive autonomously in the entire nine-county San Francisco Bay Area plus the counties of Sacramento and Yolo, and in Southern California from Thousand Oaks to the Mexican border and east to I-15.

In August 2026, Waymo announced plans to expand in California that will be "gradual and guided by our safety framework."

Florida: Waymo met with the St. Petersburg Transportation department in August 2026.

Kentucky: As of September 2026, Waymo is mapping in Northern Kentucky.

North Carolina: Waymo had a "very preliminary" conversation with the city of Raleigh c. 2023.

Ohio: As of September 2026, Waymo is mapping in Cincinnati.

Utah: Waymo communicated with state Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore Jr. in 2026.

Virginia: Waymo started mapping Arlington and Alexandria in May 2026.

Public transit

In September 2025, Waymo and the city of Chandler, Arizona, announced that Waymo would be integrated into Chandler's public microtransit service.

Trucking

In 2020 Waymo launched a self-driving truck development division designated as Waymo Via, to work with OEMs to integrate its technology into commercial vehicles. The company began testing Class 8 tractor-trailers in 2018 in Atlanta, expanding in 2019 to southwest shipping routes across Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. The company opened a trucking hub in Dallas, Texas in 2021. It partnered with Daimler to integrate autonomous technology into a fleet of Freightliner Cascadia trucks. Waymo operated 48 Class 8 autonomous trucks with safety drivers.

Waymo tested its technology in commercial delivery vehicles with United Parcel Service. In July 2020 Waymo and Stellantis expanded their partnership, including the development of Ram ProMaster delivery vehicles.

In July 2023, Waymo announced that it was moving away from commercial development of self-driving trucks to focus on the ride-hailing Waymo business, and shuttered the Waymo Via trucking program. The vast majority of employees who were on Waymo's trucking team moved to other roles within the company.

Delivery

Waymo has partnered with Uber Eats and DoorDash to deliver food.

Road maintenance

Waymo data is used by local governments for pothole detection.

Technology

Hardware

Google has invested heavily in matrix multiplication and video processing hardware such as the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) to augment Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) and Intel's central processing units (CPUs) used in Waymo vehicles.

Waymo manufactures a suite of self-driving hardware developed in-house. This includes sensors and hardware-enhanced vision system, lidar, and radar. Sensors give 360-degree views while lidar detects objects up to 300 metres (980 ft) away. Short-range lidar images objects near the vehicle, and radar is used to see around other vehicles and track objects in motion.

Software

Waymo uses a deep-learning architecture called VectorNet to predict vehicle trajectories in complex traffic scenarios. It uses a graph neural network to model the interactions between vehicles and has demonstrated state-of-the-art performance on several benchmark datasets for trajectory prediction.

Waymo Carcraft is a virtual world in which Waymo simulates driving conditions. The simulator was named after the video game World of Warcraft. With Carcraft, 25,000 virtual self-driving cars navigate through models of Austin, Texas; Mountain View, California; Phoenix, Arizona; and other cities.

Vehicles

As of October 2024, Morgan Stanley estimated the total vehicle cost at over $120,000, and another source estimated $150,000. As of June 2025, a third source estimates it to be above $100,000. Other costs include ride monitors, service personnel, and real estate for storing and servicing the vehicles.

In February 2026, Waymo's chief safety officer confirmed that the company employs remote assistance workers in the United States and the Philippines to address situations that the vehicles cannot independently solve. The company stated that the remote workers do not drive the vehicles, simply providing guidance to the vehicle, which can accept or reject it.

Operations, efficiency, and safety

From California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) data, as of September 2025, Waymo delivered 4.75 million Passenger Miles Traveled (PMT) monthly, which required 6.57 million Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT). This is a threefold growth from September 2024 in both PMT and VMT, with the ratio staying roughly equal.

Vehicles have an average passenger occupancy of 0.75. In 70% of the trips, only one passenger is in the car. For 44% of miles, the vehicle is empty, and 4.6% of requested trips are cancelled.

In 2024, Waymo and insurance company Swiss Re published a study which estimated that Waymo generated 92% fewer bodily injury claims and 88% fewer property damage claims than human drivers over the same number of miles in the same locations. The study said that by the end of 2024, the company faced two potential bodily injury claims (accidents where the Waymo vehicle was potentially at fault) and estimated that human drivers would have generated 26 bodily injury claims. For property damage claims, Waymo logged nine versus an estimated 78 for human drivers. Experts noted that the sample size in the study of 25 million miles driven is extremely small (0.0008%), compared to the 3 trillion miles logged annually by human drivers in the US.

A July 2026 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety compared AVs from Waymo to human drivers from 2021 to 2024 in the US states of Arizona, California, and Texas, and found that the total AV crash rate per vehicle-miles traveled was 68% lower than the human driver rate, the single-vehicle crash rate was 85% lower, and the rate of crashes which caused injury or fatality was 81% lower (though many times the AVs had no people on board to be injured). In crashes serious enough to report to police, the Waymo vehicle was at fault in 8% of cases, and in another 8% of cases fault was unclear. The AVs did not operate on interstate highways during the study period.

On January 19, 2025, an empty Waymo was stopped in a line of cars when a speeding driver rear-ended the line, killing a passenger and a dog in another car; this was the first fatal crash involving Waymo.

On February 16, 2025, a cyclist was hospitalized after being doored by a Waymo passenger; the cyclist sued Waymo, alleging that it had stopped in an unsafe location and failed to warn the passengers before exiting.

On October 27, 2025, a Waymo in San Francisco hit and killed KitKat, a local bodega cat, after he darted under the car as it was pulling away. In response, Supervisor Jackie Fielder called for the state to pass legislation allowing local governments to ban self-driving cars.

On November 30, 2025, a Waymo hit and killed a dog. According to the dog's owner, Waymo failed to notice what had happened and continued on after the collision.

On January 23, 2026, a Waymo hit a child crossing the street, who suffered minor injures. The NHTSA opened an investigation into Waymo. According to Waymo and the NTSB, the child was obscured behind an SUV, and the Waymo car braked but was unable to avoid contact.

On August 7, 2026, in Dallas, a man was crossing a street at 11:30 p.m. when he was struck by an SUV and thrown 30 feet, where he was struck by an unoccupied Waymo vehicle traveling in the opposite direction. He was taken to the hospital where he died.

Legal and political disputes

In January 2022, Waymo sued the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to prevent data on driverless crashes from being released to the public. Waymo maintained that such information constituted a trade secret. According to The Los Angeles Times, the "topics Waymo wants to keep hidden include how it plans to handle driverless car emergencies, what it would do if a robot taxi started driving itself where it wasn't supposed to go, and what constraints there are on the car's ability to traverse San Francisco's tunnels, tight curves and steep hills." The court ruled some details regarding safety records do not have to be released.

In January 2024, the city attorney of San Francisco attempted to sue to prevent expansion of driverless vehicles including Waymo into San Francisco. The San Mateo County government soon after also sent a letter to regulators opposing expansion to its county.

In May 2024, the NHTSA launched an investigation into potential flaws in Waymo vehicles, focusing on 31 incidents that included Waymo vehicles ramming into a closing gate, driving on the wrong side of the road, and at least 17 crashes or fires. Waymo recalled its self-driving software in May 2025. The investigation was closed in July 2025 with no further action taken.

In July 2025, anti-Waymo protestors in Boston were joined by city officials, who expressed concerns over safety and the impact on rideshare drivers. Eight city councillors proposed an ordinance to restrict self-driving car services in Boston, with one provision requiring safety drivers.

In September 2025, police in San Bruno, California pulled over a Waymo after it made an illegal U-turn.

In November 2025, a man sued Waymo after he was falsely identified as a terrorist on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List and denied access to Waymo. He later dropped the case.

In November 2025, New Jersey State Senator Andrew Zwicker proposed a bill to require a three-year pilot project for self-driving cars, with a safety driver present at all times; Waymo opposes the bill.

In November 2025, San Diego City Council member Sean Elo-Rivera opposed Waymo expansion, citing the impact on taxi and rideshare drivers. In January 2026, the board of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System passed a resolution opposing Waymo expansion.

In November 2025, the city of Santa Monica, California banned Waymo from charging its vehicles between 11 pm and 6 am, claiming that two of their charging stations are public nuisances, due to complaints from nearby residents about noise and light pollution. Waymo continued using the stations, and sued the city in an attempt to overturn the nuisance declaration. In July 2026, the court issued a preliminary injunction in the city's favor, but the injunction was overturned in September 2026.

In October 2026, the Minneapolis City Council approved a resolution requiring human drivers in robotaxis, in response to Waymo testing in Minneapolis. Mayor Jacob Frey vetoed the resolution, and the City Council failed to override the veto.

School bus incidents

In September 2025, a Waymo in Atlanta was recorded illegally passing a stopped school bus. Georgia State Representative Clint Crowe and State Senator Rick Williams criticized Waymo, with Williams stating his support for higher fines for self-driving cars.

The NHTSA launched an investigation on October 20.

Austin Independent School District (AISD) revealed that Waymo cars had illegally passed its school buses 20 times from the start of the school year to December 1, and asked Waymo to stop its operations during school drop-off and pick-up hours, but Waymo refused.

Atlanta Public Schools later revealed six illegal passing incidents.

Waymo recalled its self-driving software on December 8.

As of January 15, 2026, AISD has reported four violations since the recall.

The NHTSA launched a second investigation on January 23.

The NTSB launched an investigation into an incident on January 12, and released a preliminary report on March 3; the Waymo car stopped for the bus, but then asked a human operator whether the bus still had its lights on, and the human operator said no.

The NTSB launched another investigation following an incident on March 25.

Vandalism

In 2018, after the death of Elaine Herzberg — the first recorded case of a pedestrian fatality involving a self-driving car (an Uber test vehicle) — there were several cases of Waymo cars being vandalized.

In 2023, the San Francisco group Safe Street Rebel used a practice called "coning" to trap Waymo and Cruise cars with traffic cones as a form of protest after stating that the cars had been involved in hundreds of incidents.

In February 2024, during Lunar New Year celebrations in Chinatown, San Francisco, a mob of vandals attacked, graffitied, and set fire to a Waymo car. No one was injured.

In February 2024, a pair of Waymo passengers described an attack by an onlooker who attempted to cover the car's sensors.

In July 2024, Waymo sued two people who allegedly vandalized their cars.

During the June 2025 Los Angeles protests against mass deportation, several Waymo cars were set on fire when riots broke out. Officials including California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass condemned the destruction, attributing it to extremists infiltrating otherwise-peaceful protests.

Use of camera footage by police

Waymo has been criticized for law enforcement agencies' use of its camera footage. According to Waymo, it "does not provide information or data to law enforcement without a valid legal request".

In July 2026, the San Mateo Police Department had stated that Waymo had reported to them that 15-year-old passengers were drinking alcohol and firing a black gun from inside the vehicle towards other vehicles. A Waymo employee remotely monitoring the car brought it to a halt in a parking lot where police were waiting. The gun turned out to be a toy gun painted black, and the projectiles were Orbeez pellets. The district attorney’s office is reviewing whether to press charges, including underage drinking and engaging in threatening behavior.

Relationship with emergency services

There have been many incidents of Waymo cars impeding or disobeying emergency services. The San Francisco Fire Department reported 31 incidents between April 2025 and June 2026. In one high-profile incident in March 2026, Waymo car in Austin attempted to make a U-turn but ended up stuck and blocked an ambulance responding to a mass shooting; Waymo later declined to attend a public meeting about the incident. In October 2026, California passed a law allowing the state to fine robotaxi companies for impeding emergency services.

Waymo has also been criticized for calling 911 on unresponsive passengers, most of whom have simply fallen asleep. Austin reported nearly 100 incidents in 2025, with only 3% actually requiring medical transport. Austin officials stated that San Francisco had 250 similar episodes in 2025.

Other incidents

In 2021, it was noted that Waymo cars kept routing through the Richmond District of San Francisco, with up to 50 cars each day driving to a dead-end street before turning around.

In August 2024, residents of San Francisco's SoMa district began to complain about noise pollution from Waymo vehicles honking at each other in a local parking lot. Residents reported hearing the car horns daily, with activity levels varying and usually peaking around 4 AM and during evening rush hour. The honking appears to have been triggered by the self-driving cars backing in and out of the lot. The story caught attention after a resident began live streaming the cars. Waymo apologized and said the issue will be addressed with software updates.

In December 2024, a Waymo car drove in circles around a parking lot with a passenger inside, which took several minutes to resolve remotely. Waymo says it has fixed the issue.

In April 2025:

A Waymo car got stuck in a drive-thru.

A Waymo passenger reported being trapped in the car after it drove the wrong way and stopped in the middle of the road. According to Waymo, one passenger pressed the "pull over" button, and passengers could have unlocked the doors by pulling the door handle twice.

In December 2025:

A "minor collision" between two Waymo cars blocked an intersection.

A Waymo passenger found a person hiding in the trunk of the car; Waymo was criticized for not having a system to detect this.

A Waymo car got stuck on a bridge in the Venice Canal Historic District in Los Angeles during a parade.

A Waymo car drove the wrong way on a one-way street.

Waymo cars became inoperable during a large-scale power outage in San Francisco, blocking traffic and intersections. In response, Waymo temporarily halted ride-hailing services until power was restored. Authorities expressed concern that similar behavior during a disaster would block emergency responders and residents fleeing danger.

In January 2026:

A Waymo car drove on newly-built tracks of the Phoenix Valley Metro Rail.

A burglar used a Waymo as a getaway car; the case was still unsolved as of June 2026.

In March 2026:

A Waymo stopped between the train and the bar gate at a railroad crossing.

In April 2026:

A Waymo car drove the wrong way in a school zone.

Waymo paused its operations in San Antonio after a car was swept away during a flood. The shutdown lasted until September 2026. Waymo recalled their robotaxis over this issue.

A Waymo car got stuck in Broadway, and had to get moved off the road by Metro Police

A Waymo car drove off with a passenger's luggage in the trunk.

In May 2026:

Dozens of Waymo cars without passengers were seen circling around cul-de-sacs in Atlanta for hours at a time for several weeks. Waymo released a statement to WSB-TV claiming that these incidents were caused by a problem with their "routing behavior" and that Waymo was looking into the matter.

Waymo paused its service in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Austin, and Nashville due to flooding; service from San Antonio remained paused from the previous month.

From San Mateo to San Francisco, a Waymo car exceeded the speed limit on a highway through a construction zone, was chased by police, and left the highway for a residential neighborhood. Waymo paused freeway rides in the United States to address the problems.

In June 2026:

Waymo recalled its software after a series incidents involving cars driving into construction zones on freeways.

A Waymo car drove in an oncoming traffic lane.

In July 2026:

On July 4 in San Francisco, a Waymo car caught fire after driving over lit fireworks, and several Waymo vehicles ran out of energy in a traffic jam and had to be towed, further exacerbating the traffic jam.