Waymo is currently delivering 500,000 commercial robotaxi journeys weekly across 10 U.S. urban centers, as disclosed by the firm in a recent X (formerly Twitter) update. This astonishing number demonstrates the Alphabet-controlled entity’s rapid business growth. Yet, it is Waymo’s pace of increase in its customer base and operational regions that presents a more captivating narrative.
Within a span of under two years, the company’s mean number of remunerated autonomous taxi trips each week has multiplied by ten, progressing from 50,000 per week in May 2024 to 500,000 per week today. Throughout this identical two-year period, Waymo has broadened its presence within its original operational areas of Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles — and furthermore into Austin, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. These seven urban areas situated in the Sun Belt region were incorporated solely over the preceding twelve months.
Waymo’s autonomous vehicle armada has also expanded, despite the firm safeguarding these figures and seldom offering new information. Information submitted to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration in December 2025 indicates the company had 3,067 robotaxis outfitted with its fifth-generation autonomous driving technology. Currently, the enterprise continues to cite the “more than 3,000” vehicle count for its fleet. This situation might soon be altered upon the launch of its sixth-generation autonomous driving technology, set to first appear in the Zeekr minivan, dubbed Ojai, and the Hyundai Ioniq 5.
The relatively consistent count of 3,000 vehicles, coupled with an increase in weekly compensated journeys, implies Waymo is extracting greater utility from every autonomous taxi. This metric of usage holds significant importance, as unoccupied Waymo automobiles navigating San Francisco or other locations generate no revenue and exacerbate traffic jams.
Such expansion, however, is accompanied by difficulties. Waymo has faced heightened examination lately from both citizens and oversight bodies. As an illustration, the NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board are probing the unauthorized conduct of Waymo’s self-driving taxis near school transport vehicles. Concurrently, San Francisco municipal authorities have voiced apprehension regarding the corporation’s management of immobilized autonomous taxis, including Waymo’s sporadic reliance on law enforcement and fire department personnel to free its automobiles.
Waymo’s customer volume remains a mere fraction of Uber’s traditional, human-operated ride-sharing operations. Uber executed approximately 13.5 billion journeys in 2025, a sum encompassing both ride-sharing and delivery errands, as per financial disclosures. The nearest equivalent for solely ride-hailing was announced during Uber’s August 2024 earnings conference when the firm stated it performed over one million mobility services hourly.
To put it differently, Waymo is not yet closely challenging Uber’s dominance.
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Nonetheless, as each month passes, the firm’s advantage in autonomous taxi journeys expands further.
Several enterprises are competing for a portion of the autonomous taxi market, even though numerous others have not yet introduced a completely self-driving ride-sharing service for which a charge is levied. Certain Chinese autonomous taxi firms, such as Pony.ai and WeRide, do impose fees for their robotaxi services, however, none conduct operations within the United States.
In January, Tesla commenced running a remunerated autonomous taxi service in Austin, and despite CEO Elon Musk’s assertions that the corporation is close to launching a completely self-driving ride-sharing service in California, it possesses none of the necessary authorizations to proceed. Numerous other firms, such as Avride, Hyundai-owned Motional, and Zoox, are all striving to introduce commercial autonomous taxi services in diverse regions before the year concludes.
All of them face a considerable amount of ground to cover.
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