Self-driving cars are slowly becoming less sci-fi and more real-world as companies like Waymo, the autonomous arm of Google's parent, Alphabet, expand into more cities. And now, Waymo is heading to Europe, starting with London in the coming weeks.
On Wednesday, Waymo shared it'll start driving on London roads with humans behind the wheel "while we lay the groundwork for fully autonomous operations," the company said in a statement. "We will scale up based on guidelines established by the UK Department for Transport and Transport for London, and work closely with local and national leaders to secure the necessary permissions to offer fully autonomous rides in 2026."
This is Waymo's second international city, after announcing last year that it's expanding to Tokyo, though passengers can't hail a ride there just yet.
Waymo currently operates fully autonomous rides for the general public in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Austin, Texas, which use the all-electric Jaguar I-Pace. The vehicles can be summoned either via the Waymo app or Uber, depending on the city.
Waymo's expansions have ramped up in recent months, with Nashville, New York, Denver and Seattle joining the roster of upcoming robotaxi locations. In an Aug. 29 blog post, Waymo said it's "entering a new chapter and accelerating our commercial expansion." You can find a full list of where Waymo is heading below.
In January, Waymo announced it would begin testing with manually driven vehicles in 10 new cities this year, starting with Las Vegas and San Diego. And in April, it said it reached a preliminary agreement with Toyota to "explore a collaboration" geared toward developing autonomous driving tech, which could someday be factored into personally owned vehicles.
Waymo's expansion extends to its manufacturing facilities. In May, the company said it's opening a new, 239,000-square-foot autonomous vehicle factory in the Phoenix area. The plan is to add 2,000 more fully autonomous Jaguar I-Pace vehicles to its existing 1,500-vehicle fleet. Notably, Waymo indicated it received its "final delivery from Jaguar" earlier this year, as it plans for future iterations of its driverless rides. Waymo added that the "facility's flexible design" will allow it to integrate its upcoming sixth-generation self-driving technology into new vehicles, starting with the all-electric Zeekr RT.
In October, Waymo also announced that it's partnering with Hyundai to bring the next generation of its technology into Ioniq 5 SUVs. In the years to come, riders will be able to summon those all-electric, autonomous vehicles using the Waymo app.
The self-driving company says it's driven over 100 million fully autonomous miles on public roads and has provided more than 10 million paid rides. I've hailed several rides myself in San Francisco and, as off-putting as it can seem at first (especially to see a steering wheel turn by itself), I quickly adjusted, and it soon felt like an ordinary ride.
That's not to say there hasn't been pushback as Waymo rolls out to more cities. The company's vehicles have been involved in a handful of high-profile collisions, including one with a bicyclist in San Francisco and another with a towed pickup truck in Phoenix. (Waymo recalled and updated its software to address the issue.)
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