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Waymo's Autonomous Ride Service Expands to New Cities

The company has doubled its operating area for robotaxi services over the past several months.

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Headshot of Tyler Graham
Tyler Graham Writer
Tyler is a writer for CNET covering laptops and video games. He's previously covered mobile devices, home energy products and broadband. He came to CNET straight out of college, where he graduated from Seton Hall with a bachelor's degree in journalism. When Tyler's not asking questions or doing research for his next assignment, you can find him in his home state of New Jersey, kicking back with a bagel and watching an action flick or playing a new video game. When Tyler's not asking questions or doing research for his next assignment, you can find him in his home state of New Jersey, kicking back with a bagel and watching an action flick or playing a new video game. You can reach him at tgraham@cnet.com.
Expertise Video gaming, computer hardware, laptops, home energy, home internet
Tyler Graham
2 min read
A woman steps into the backseat of a Waymo-modified Jaguar I-Pace. In the background, location cards show off key POIs from Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando.

Waymo's autonomous Jaguar I-Pace EVs are available to hail in four new cities, effective immediately.

 Waymo

Autonomous driving technology company Waymo announced on Tuesday that it's expanding its driverless ride-hailing services to four new cities -- three in Texas and one in Florida. Effective immediately, invitations will roll out to select Waymo customers in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando, allowing people there to take their first local robotaxi rides. The new areas for Waymo autonomous ride-hailing span 60 square miles in San Antonio and Orlando, 50 square miles in Dallas, and 25 square miles in Houston, with an initial focus on downtown areas.

Then, on Wednesday, the company announced it was planning to move into the Chicago and Charlotte markets. 

This operational expansion is part of a recent trend for the ride-hailing service. Before now, Waymo's driverless rides were available in six US cities. The company's robotaxi service has been expanding its operations in Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta and Austin, Texas. In January, Waymo offered its first driverless rides in Miami. Across all six areas of operation, Waymo's autonomous vehicles have traveled over 200 million cumulative miles.

As far as Chicago and Charlotte, the company said it was beginning "manual mapping and early data collection to lay the early groundwork for operations in these cities."

Watch this: Waymo's Driverless Cars Can Now Navigate Freeways

More cities to come

In the first quarter of 2026, Waymo doubled the number of American cities where it provides driverless ride-hailing services, with plans for adding more. 

Waymo, which is owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, plans to expand even further in 2026. The company is laying the groundwork for future operations in Denver, Nashville, Las Vegas and Washington, DC. Waymo is also looking to expand internationally, with plans to bring its autonomous vehicles to London and Tokyo.

Currently, driverless rides are limited to surface streets in most of the operating areas. While this imposes limitations on how speedy Waymo rides might be, street driving presents more controllable conditions for Waymo's autonomous cars. In November, Waymo started a public pilot offering autonomous freeway rides in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In addition to expanding services to new US metropolitan areas, Waymo has been experimenting with a new generation of autonomous vehicles. While users are currently hailing the electric Jaguar I-Pace in every city where Waymo provides consumer-facing operations, that might change very soon.

Waymo's sixth-generation driverless technology has debuted on the roads in San Francisco and Los Angeles -- though it's currently only available to Waymo employees. The sixth-gen tech will be integrated into the Ojai vehicle (also known as the Zeekr RT) before being deployed in a fleet of Hyundai Ioniq 5 EVs.

The sixth-generation technology and freeway driving capabilities are not yet available in the new operating areas throughout Texas and Florida.