Self-Driving Cars Are Growing Fast And Waymo Leads the Way.
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Waymo, a company owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, is growing fast in the self-driving car world. Right now, Waymo is using 1,500 self-driving Jaguar I-PACE cars in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Austin. Each week, they complete over 250,000 paid rides. Now, Waymo says it will more than double its fleet to 3,500 cars by the end of next year.
Waymo builds its self-driving cars in a big factory in Mesa, Arizona. It works with a company called Magna to put its special “Waymo Driver” system into electric Jaguar I-PACE SUVs. Waymo plans to build more than 2,000 new I-PACE cars in 2025. It also wants to use this technology in other cars like the Zeekr RT.
The company is adding new cities too. In Los Angeles, Waymo started offering rides in 2024 and now covers 80 square miles. It even started testing rides on freeways. Waymo also began a transit credit program. If you ride to one of eight train stations, you get $3 off your Waymo fare. Austin also joined the list in 2024, and full public rides will begin in early 2025, in partnership with Uber.
Waymo plans to expand to 10 more cities. Testing in San Diego and Las Vegas has already begun. Atlanta and Miami are next, and Waymo will team up with Uber in Atlanta. Tokyo is also getting ready for driverless cars, though public rides won’t start there yet.
Even as Waymo grows, some companies are struggling. Cruise, owned by GM, shut down its robotaxi service after a crash in San Francisco. Ford also pulled back from building self-driving cars in 2022. Meanwhile, Tesla says it will test its own robotaxi, called Cybercab, in Austin and may offer it to the public by 2027.
Some people are still unsure about riding in driverless cars. A 2022 study showed that 45% of Americans feel nervous about them. But studies show that Waymo’s self-driving cars are safer than human drivers. One report found 88% fewer property damage claims and 92% fewer injury claims.
Waymo’s success shows that even though self-driving cars are still new, they’re growing fast, and they might be here to stay
