Waymo is gearing up to introduce its autonomous taxi service in Miami, marking another step in its expansion plan as competitors struggle. Next year, Waymo will test its driverless Jaguars in Miami, preparing for a commercial launch in 2026. This comes shortly after making its service available across 80 square miles in Los Angeles, which expanded Waymo's reach beyond Phoenix and San Francisco.
Also slated for 2024, Waymo intends to deploy robotaxi fleets in Atlanta and Austin, in collaboration with Uber. Waymo is also partnering with Moove, a fleet management company, which will maintain around 200 vehicles in Phoenix and oversee Miami operations. This expansion reflects on Waymo's origin as Google's secret self-driving car project in 2009, which spun off into Waymo in 2016. Waymo remains loss-making under Alphabet Inc., but has attracted $5.6 billion in recent investments due to its proven safety record, with no major incidents in over 150,000 weekly trips.
In contrast, competitor Cruise, owned by General Motors, is struggling after a severe accident in San Francisco that led to its license suspension in California. This has curbed Cruise's expansion plans. Meanwhile, Tesla's CEO Elon Musk continues to promise a fleet of autonomous taxis, projecting "Cybercabs" on US roads by 2026. (This story was generated by Newser's AI chatbot. Source: the AP)
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