Waymo, the self-driving car company owned by tech giant Alphabet (GOOGL), announced that it will begin test-driving its robotaxi vehicles with human drivers in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. These cities are the latest additions to Waymo’s growing list of places where it’s either operating, testing, or preparing to launch its autonomous ride service. With the new locations included, Waymo is now active in or planning operations in 26 different U.S. markets, according to spokesperson Ethan Teicher, who told CNBC that the goal is to eventually offer fully driverless rides in these new areas.
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This update comes as other major tech companies like Amazon (AMZN) and Tesla (TSLA) look to enter the robotaxi space. Indeed, Amazon’s Zoox has started offering free rides in Las Vegas and San Francisco, while Tesla launched a supervised ride-hailing service in Austin and San Francisco earlier this year. In November, Waymo also said that it would begin manual testing in Minneapolis, Tampa, and New Orleans, and announced plans to launch service in Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando by 2026.
It’s worth noting that Waymo is already running its robotaxi service in cities such as Austin, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and the San Francisco Bay Area by providing over 250,000 paid rides each week. Since launching in 2020, the company has completed more than 10 million paid rides. Recently, it also expanded its service to include freeway rides in some cities. The decision to enter colder-weather cities like Baltimore and Pittsburgh shows that Waymo is becoming confident in its technology’s ability to perform in more challenging driving conditions.
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