Waymo | The Verge

Most people still don’t want anything to do with robotaxis

2026-04-20T16:05:13-04:00

I've been reporting on self-driving cars for over a decade, and I've seen the technology go through many ups and downs, highs and lows. But one thing has remained remarkably the same over the years: the public just ain't buying it.

Poll after poll has revealed a deep and abiding skepticism toward autonomous vehicles. People don't trust the technology, don't want to ride in cars without human drivers - even when the evidence suggests the vehicle could be much safer than a human driver. Sure, robotaxis are operating in about a dozen cities now, and companies like Waymo don't seem to have any problems finding customers. But when you expand th …

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Waymo is offering to help cities fix their potholes

2026-04-08T17:33:41-04:00

In recent months, some cities have sought a new recruit in their forever war against potholes: Waymo.

Municipal officials in multiple cities where Waymo operates have reached out to the robotaxi operator for help in locating potholes on their streets, assuming that Waymo kept such data. Fortunately for them, Waymo does, and it has recently decided to launch a pilot program, along with Google's Waze, to share its pothole data with city officials.

The mission is to make city streets safer to drive, which is desirable for both human and robot drivers. And it could help Waymo's broader effort to build positive relationships with cities, espec …

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Robotaxi companies won’t say how often remote operators intervene

2026-04-06T15:55:18-04:00

Autonomous vehicle companies are refusing to disclose key details about their use of remote assistance teams, including how often these workers are forced to intervene to help their self-driving cars.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) had asked robotaxi companies to disclose the information as part of an investigation by his office into the use of remote assistance operators (RAO). The senator's office sent letters to seven robotaxi companies - Aurora, May Mobility, Motional, Nuro, Tesla, Waymo, and Amazon's Zoox - seeking information about the use of remote workers to monitor the driverless vehicles and occasionally intervene when the vehicles need h …

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Waymo hits 170 million miles while avoiding serious mayhem

2026-03-19T15:23:46-04:00

A Waymo autonomous taxi on Bush Street in San Francisco, on Wednesday, December 17th, 2025. | Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Waymo says its autonomous vehicles have now traveled over 170 million miles while continuing to avoid serious crashes and injuries at a rate much better than human drivers. The company updated its online safety hub to reflect the new driving figures. But despite these successes, some safety advocates are raising questions about how the company presents its technology to the public.

As of December 2025, Waymo's fleet has driven the equivalent of "200 lifetimes of driving," assuming every human drives the equivalent of 850,000 miles in their lifetime. But unlike those pesky humans, the Waymo Driver - which is what the company calls the combi …

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New York drops plan to legalize robotaxis in setback for Waymo

2026-02-19T13:27:15-05:00

A Waymo autonomous self-driving Jaguar electric vehicle is seen in New York City in December of 2025. | Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) dropped her proposal to allow robotaxi companies to launch commercially in cities other than New York City, citing a lack of support among state legislators, Bloomberg reports today. The move is a blow to Waymo and other robotaxi companies who saw New York, and especially New York City, as a potential goldmine.

The plan, which was introduced by Hochul as part of the state's budget proposal last month, would have allowed limited robotaxi deployment in cities other than the Big Apple - while leaving whether New York City would get autonomous vehicles up to the mayor and the City Council. But now that plan i …

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Waymo denies using remote drivers after Senate testimony goes viral

2026-02-18T11:44:12-05:00

Waymo defended its use of remote assistants for its robotaxis after the testimony of one of its top executives during a Senate hearing went viral. In a letter to Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) on Tuesday, Waymo's head of global operations Ryan McNamara provided a detailed description of the company's remote assistance operations, including the number of employees based overseas.

Waymo has approximately 70 "remote assistance agents" that are on duty "at any given time," with half based in the US and the other half in the Philippines, McNamara said. These agents "provide advice only when requested by the [automated driving system] on an event-driven b …

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Waymo’s next-gen robotaxi is ready for passengers — and also ‘high-volume production’

2026-02-12T11:05:01-05:00

After years of testing and validation, Waymo announced today that it's sixth-generation robotaxi technology is finally ready for passenger trips. The updated autonomous driving system will first be rolled out for employees and their friends in San Francisco and Los Angeles, with public customers to follow.

Waymo's current fleet of Jaguar I-Pace vehicles runs on the company's fifth generation technology, first rolled out in March 2020. But that vehicle has reached the end of its shelf life, after Jaguar discontinued the model at the end of 2024. The updated system is designed to work seamlessly across multiple vehicle types, starting with t …

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What happens when Waymo runs into a tornado? Or an elephant?

2026-02-06T10:48:05-05:00

An autonomous vehicle drives down a lonely stretch of highway. Suddenly, a massive tornado appears in the distance. What does the driverless vehicle do next?

This is just one of the scenarios that Waymo can simulate in the "hyper realistic" virtual world that it has just created with help from Google's DeepMind. Waymo's World Model is built using Genie 3, Google's new AI world model that can generate virtual interactive spaces with text or images as prompts. But Genie 3 isn't just for creating bad knockoffs of Nintendo games; it can also build photorealistic and interactive 3D environments "adapted for the rigors of the driving domain," Way …

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Why Waymo is having a hard time stopping for school buses

2026-02-06T09:30:37-05:00

For years, Alphabet-owned Waymo has tried to set itself apart from other self-driving startups by emphasizing a culture of caution and safety. Now, just ahead of major planned rollouts across the country, it is facing a recurring failure in one of the most sensitive places imaginable: school zones.

In December, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation into Waymo after Austin's largest school district reported at least 19 incidents where the company's robotaxis failed to fully stop for school buses during loading and unloading - an illegal violation in all 50 states. Waymo quickly responded by issuin …

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Senators grill Waymo and Tesla over robotaxi safety, liability, and China

2026-02-04T17:31:01-05:00

During a two-hour hearing in the US Senate Wednesday, top executives from Waymo and Tesla urged lawmakers to take action on long-stalled legislation to speed the deployment of self-driving cars on public roads. But after two hours of Q&A around a number of hot-button topics, including robotaxi safety, legal liability, remote operation, and China, it was clear that lawmakers were no closer to passing any bill related to autonomous vehicles.

Waymo faced questions about its decision to use a Chinese-made vehicle for its next-generation robotaxi, as well as several incidents in which its vehicles failed to stop behind a school bus during studen …

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