Waymo has grown 20-fold in under two years: Google CEO Sundar Pichai

Sundar Pichai, the chief executive officer of Google and its parent Alphabet, has announced that Waymo now operates more than 200,000 paid robotaxi rides a week. Sharing this milestone for Alphabet’s self-driving unit in a video on X, Pichai highlighted that Waymo operates robotaxis in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix.

Pichai added, “That’s 20x growth in less than two years!”According to a TechCrunch report, the company was providing only 10,000 rides a week two years ago. Pichai also teased future expansions, saying, “Up next: Austin, Atlanta and Miami.”

Reports indicate that Waymo is set to launch commercial robotaxi services in Austin and Atlanta in 2025, in partnership with Uber. Under the collaboration, only Uber users will have the option to hail Waymo’s fleet of autonomous Jaguar I-PACE vehicles.

Uber will handle the charging, maintenance, and cleaning of the autonomous vehicles, as well as manage access to the robotaxis through the app. Waymo, meanwhile, will continue to oversee the technology and autonomous operations, including rider support.

In a related development, Uber recently offered a collaboration on autonomous vehicles to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, but he declined.

“I’ve had conversations with him at this point. They want to build it alone, so, to some extent in Austin, we and Waymo will be competing with Tesla when they launch. Life is long, but we would love to partner with them,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.