Waymo

Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov laid out the clearest technical case yet for why cameras alone can’t take a self-driving system to full autonomy, arguing that “weak sensing” hits a safety ceiling long before it reaches superhuman performance.

He never said the word Tesla. But camera-only is Tesla’s entire bet, and this was a direct shot at it.

Waymo is putting Google’s Gemini AI assistant inside its robotaxis for the first time, alongside the first major redesign of its rider interface in years.

Both features are launching in the Ojai, Waymo’s purpose-built vehicle, as the company gets ready to open the car up to more public riders.

Waymo’s autonomous electric taxis crash 68% less than the average human driver, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, with lower-severity crashes on average as well. But there are some important caveats that limit the data.

Waymo has tapped fleet management company Element to help keep its robotaxis charged, maintained, and on the road as the company expands into more cities.

Waymo’s retired EV batteries won’t be heading straight to recycling anymore. Instead, they’re going to help support the power grid in California and Texas.

On today’s exciting episode of Quick Charge, we’re exploring the industry’s backlash – real or imagined – towards Elon Musk’s SpaceX merger talks, Full Self Driving’s staff revolt, and even large, utility scale solar projects. All this and more when you hit that play button!

Waymo is beginning to offer select riders trips in its new purpose-built Ojai robotaxi, debuting the company’s 6th-generation Driver hardware across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Trips will be free for a limited time.

The Ojai represents a significant step for Waymo, which has now surpassed 20 million fully autonomous trips across 11 cities — a scale that no competitor comes close to matching.

Waymo announced a major expansion of its autonomous robotaxi service area, growing to over 1,400 square miles across 11 US cities. That’s an estimated 27% increase from its previous coverage and more territory than the entire state of Rhode Island.

The expansion starts in Miami, with Austin, Atlanta, Houston, and the San Francisco Bay Area up next for broader coverage.

Waymo has filed a voluntary recall with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) covering 3,791 robotaxis after one of its vehicles drove into a flooded road in San Antonio last month. No one was injured.

The key detail: the recall is a software fix that will be deployed over the air to Waymo’s entire fleet — no vehicles need to visit a service center. Waymo has already implemented interim constraints while the full remedy is finalized.

Travis Kalanick, the former CEO of Uber who helped pioneer the ride-hailing industry, says Waymo is “obviously” ahead of Tesla in the robotaxi race, and that Elon Musk’s company needs a “ChatGPT moment” for its vision-based autonomous driving to catch up.

The comments came during an appearance on the All-In podcast this week, where Kalanick also revealed he’s jumping back into the self-driving game himself with a new robotics venture called Atoms.

After Chicago residents began posting images of Waymo vehicles being unloaded on the city’s streets, the autonomous rideshare company confirmed it is exploring expanding its network to the Second City. However, an obstacle currently stands in the way of that deployment.

On today’s high-dollar episode of Quick Charge, Tesla is reeling from a $243 million judgement against it in a high-profile wrongful death case involving the company’s Autopilot system, and has a hard time getting the relevant data to NHTSA.

Waymo has started driverless robotaxi operation in 4 more US cities today: Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. This brings the running total to 10 cities, while Waymo’s highest-profile competitor in the space, Tesla, currently operates driverless robotaxis in zero cities, despite big claims to the contrary.

Tesla filed new comments with the California Public Utilities Commission that amount to a quiet admission: its “Robotaxi” service still relies on both in-car human drivers and domestic remote operators to function. Rather than downplaying these dependencies, Tesla leans into them — arguing that its multi-layered human supervision model is more reliable than Waymo’s fully driverless system, pointing to the December 2025 San Francisco blackout as proof.

The filing, submitted February 13 in CPUC Rulemaking 25-08-013, reveals the massive operational gap between what Tesla calls a “Robotaxi” and what Waymo actually operates as one.

Waymo is now running its 6th-generation Driver without safety drivers on public roads, marking the beginning of fully autonomous operations with the company’s latest and most cost-effective hardware stack.

The announcement, authored by Waymo VP of Engineering Satish Jeyachandran, confirms that the 6th-generation system, first unveiled in August 2024, is now validated for driverless operations across multiple cities. Waymo describes it as the product of seven years of service and nearly 200 million fully autonomous miles logged across 10+ major U.S. cities.

Hyundai Motor is reportedly looking to supply Waymo with 50,000 IONIQ 5 autonomous vehicles by 2028 in what would amount to a roughly $2.5 billion deal, and if it goes through, it would be a massive signal that the robotaxi industry is entering a new phase of real, industrial-scale deployment.

Waymo just closed a $16 billion funding round at a $126 billion valuation, the largest investment ever in an autonomous vehicle company. The Alphabet-backed robotaxi leader plans to use the capital to expand to over 20 new cities this year, including its first international markets.

Waymo has started providing rides with its autonomous taxi service to San Francisco International airport, starting today for select riders.

Waymo began autonomous ride-hailing operations in Miami, Florida today, covering a 60-square-mile service area stretching from the design district to South Miami.

It’s the sixth city covered by Waymo’s level 4 driverless taxis, while its main competitor, Tesla, has just started its first driverless taxi operation today (in very limited form).

Waymo founder John Krafcik made headlines this week with claims that Tesla’s cameras-only approach to Full Self Driving was “myopic,” but the self-driving taxis from the company he helped found keep illegally passing school buses – and putting kids at risk.

On today’s highly observant episode of Quick Charge, Waymo founder John Krafcik takes aim at Tesla’s Full Self Driving hardware limitations and Volvo Cars rolls out their most important new product of the 2020s: the all-new EX60 electric SUV!