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Waymo employees can hail fully autonomous rides in Atlanta now
Waymo has launched fully driverless robotaxi rides for its employees in Atlanta, a significant step forward before the company opens the service to the general public later in 2025. This move marks another milestone in Waymo’s push into new markets, following a $5.6 billion Series C round at a $45 billion valuation led by major investors such as Alphabet, Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Tiger Global, and others just two months ago.
The company had previously offered robotaxi rides to select members of the public in Austin, Texas, but only after initially opening it up for employee testing seven months prior. Waymo also plans to launch a commercial robotaxi service exclusively via the Uber app when it is officially available, starting with Atlanta and then later expanding to other cities.
In related news, Elon Musk has announced that Tesla will roll out its own robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, as early as June this year. However, it’s worth noting that Tesla has yet to deploy a fully autonomous vehicle on public roads without human oversight.
Waymo currently operates its own autonomous ride-hail service, Waymo One, in select cities such as San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.
Source: techcrunch.com
