Operations in further 10 cities expected to be approved by the end of 2026
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Image: Waymo
Waymo, the autonomous vehicle company owned by Google parent company Alphabet, has expanded its robot taxi service expanded to 10 major cities in the United States.
That means passengers in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando can book fully autonomous rides for the first time, in addition to cities where Waymo was already operating, such as Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta and Austin.
In the four new cities, selected users with the Waymo app will first receive invitations to try the robotic taxis, after which the service should become available to everyone later this year.
This expansion is an important step in Waymo’s ambition to achieve more than 1 million paid rides per week by the end of 2026 and to eventually operate in more than 20 cities.
The robotic taxis are requested directly through the Waymo app in most cities; in Atlanta and Austin, the company is partnering with Uber.
Waymo has also raised a hefty capital injection of around $16 billion, putting the company up against a valuation of around $126 billion.
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