The Google years
Google started its self-driving car project in 2009 under Sebastian Thrun, whose Stanford team had won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, and revealed it in October 2010 with a fleet of modified Priuses that had already driven 140,000 miles with safety drivers. The bubble-shaped Firefly prototype of 2014 had no steering wheel at all. In December 2016 Alphabet spun the project out as Waymo, a stand-alone company with its own hardware and a mandate to run a business.
Phoenix first
Waymo chose the Phoenix suburbs for its first service: wide roads, good weather, a state that welcomed testing. Waymo One opened to riders in December 2018 with safety drivers aboard, began fully driverless rides for a small group in 2019, and opened driverless rides to the public in October 2020. The Phoenix area became the proving ground for everything that followed, including freeway driving and airport pickups.
San Francisco and beyond
San Francisco was the harder test: hills, fog, dense traffic, and a city government that pushed back. After the California Public Utilities Commission approved round-the-clock paid service in August 2023, Waymo grew steadily while its rival Cruise collapsed, opened to everyone in the city in June 2024, and expanded down the Peninsula. Los Angeles, Austin and Atlanta followed, the latter two through a partnership that puts Waymo cars on the Uber app, and the company has announced further cities and its first international testing in Tokyo.
The vehicles
Waymo's fleet moved from Chrysler Pacifica minivans to the electric Jaguar I-Pace, fitted with the company's own fifth-generation sensor suite of lidar, cameras and radar. Its sixth generation is designed for the Zeekr-built, purpose-designed van and for lower cost per vehicle. The company has also said it will add Hyundai Ioniq 5s. What it has not done is remove the safety case from the vehicle: every Waymo carries the full sensor set, and the company publishes crash-rate comparisons against human drivers in the same areas.
Frequently asked questions
Is Waymo owned by Google?
Waymo is a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google's parent company, with outside investors as well. It grew out of the Google self-driving car project and became a separate company in 2016.
Where can I ride a Waymo?
As of this writing, in metro Phoenix, San Francisco and parts of the Peninsula, Los Angeles, Austin and Atlanta, through the Waymo One app or, in some cities, Uber. The list changes often; Waymo's own site has the current one.
Does Waymo use lidar?
Yes. Every Waymo vehicle carries lidar, cameras and radar, and the company has said it considers the redundancy essential to driving without a human fallback.