Autonomous Cars

A Waymo made the unfortunate decision to drive on light rail tracks in Phoenix with a passenger inside while a train was approaching. The passenger made the right call to abandon the robotaxis, even if it meant getting out in the middle of traffic. Valley Metro, which oversees light rail service, says there were no significant delays as a result of the incident. This comes a few weeks after a blackout caused a massive Waymo traffic jam in San Francisco.

Waymo has a new name for its Zeekr-produced autonomous minivans that are set to roll out this year. Ojai, named for the city northwest of Los Angeles, was chosen because most American consumers aren’t familiar with the Geely-owned Zeekr brand, according to InsideEVs. That may be true, but try saying “Waymo Ojai” five times really fast.

In addition to an update for its power outage problem, Waymo is also working on an AI Ride Assistant. That’s according to security researcher Jane Manchun Wong, who found details on the bot’s system prompt from Waymo’s mobile app code.

When a substation fire cut off electricity across the city, Waymo SUVs stuck at malfunctioning stoplights quickly became another headache, and now the company is explaining it as an issue of too many remote operator assistance requests:

The robotaxi operator had a pretty good year, one dead bodega cat notwithstanding. As such, its looking to extend its streak by raising $15 billion on a $100 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg. The money would help fuel its plans to expand to 20 new cities in 2026, including London and Tokyo.

That’s triple the number of fares it did in 2024, the company said today. Assuming that the average Waymo ride costs $20.43, that could mean in excess of $286 million in revenue for the company. Of course, some of that money is going toward taxes and other ride-hailing fees. Still, that’s an impressive number for a company that only operates in five cities in the US — and soon to grow to 20 cities internationally. Waymo also says it’s now on track to do 20 million lifetime trips by the end of the year.

As spotted by TechCrunch, the new expansion to Grand Theft Auto Online, dubbed “A Safehouse in the Hills,” includes a fictionalized version of Waymo called “KnoWay.” The cars are recognizable as autonomous thanks to their rooftop lidar sensors and their Waymo-esque logos. But the similarities end there, as the vehicles are shown in a trailer for the game dangerously swerving all over the road and even crashing through a billboard. The expansion is available starting December 10th.

To help address the issue of its robotaxis passing stopped school buses, Waymo plans to file a voluntary software recall with the NHTSA, Mauricio Peña, Waymo’s chief safety officer, says in a statement to The Verge.

Waymo is going to start manually testing its vehicles in four new US cities: Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. Waymo plans to start by deploying manually driven vehicles, then fully autonomous ones, followed by select passenger trips, and finally, a public robotaxi service. (The company is already is driving autonomously with a safety driver in Philly.) Waymo has signaled it hopes to launch in over 20 cities in the coming years. Of course, not every city is welcoming the robotaxis with open arms.

Uber customers can now be matched with a robotaxi operated by Avride in a small, 9-square mile section of Dallas. The vehicles, Hyundai Ioniq 5s, still have safety drivers for now as part of a phased introduction, with fully driverless operations coming later. The fleet will also be small at first, but will grow to “hundreds” over time, the company says. This is Uber’s latest robotaxi deployment in the US, following the partnership with Waymo in Austin and Atlanta.

I’ve said this before, but as Waymo continues to scale and grow, we’re going to see more of this kind of stuff. Last month, it was a beloved neighborhood cat who was killed after running underneath a Waymo in San Francisco. This week, one of its robotaxis wandered into the middle of a police arrest in LA. Waymo confirms its car briefly intruded on a police standoff while ferrying a passenger, but that it cleared the scene in 15 seconds.