# Waymo

> Waymo is Alphabet’s autonomous-driving company and the operator of a growing paid robotaxi network. Its Waymo Driver combines lidar, radar, cameras, maps, simulation and machine learning to carry passengers without a human at the controls. The company sells rides directly through the Waymo app and, in select markets, reaches customers through Uber. With more than 20 million lifetime autonomous rides reported by early 2026, a $126 billion post-money valuation and expansion planned across the United States and abroad, Waymo now sits at the difficult seam between an AI research achievement and a transportation utility.

- **Founded:** 2009
- **Headquarters:** Mountain View, United States
- **Founders:** Sebastian Thrun (Founder and original leader of the Google self-driving car project), Anthony Levandowski (Co-founder and early technical lead of the Google self-driving car project), Dmitri Dolgov (Founding engineer; Waymo co-CEO)
- **Team size:** Approximately 4,700 employees
- **Products:** Waymo Driver, Waymo One, Sixth-generation Waymo Driver, Waymo Premier, Ojai autonomous vehicle
- **Notable:** Began as the Google self-driving car project in 2009 and completed ten uninterrupted 100-mile autonomous routes that year., Gave a legally blind passenger a fully autonomous public-road ride in Austin in 2015 in a vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals., Became the independent Alphabet company Waymo in 2016.

## Products & services

- **Waymo Driver** — A Level 4 autonomous-driving system combining cameras, lidar, radar, onboard compute, high-detail maps, machine learning and large-scale simulation.
- **Waymo One** — A paid, fully autonomous ride-hailing service available through the Waymo app in supported markets and through Uber in Austin and Atlanta.
- **Sixth-generation Waymo Driver** — A lower-cost, more streamlined sensor and compute generation intended to handle a broader range of weather and vehicle platforms.
- **Waymo Premier** — An elevated rider program for frequent customers, introduced as the service expanded and began segmenting its customer experience.
- **Ojai autonomous vehicle** — A rider-first electric vehicle platform with a flat floor, large screens and accessibility features, slated to debut the sixth-generation Waymo Driver.
- **Waymo Via** — A trucking and local-delivery program whose commercial timeline was pushed back in 2023 as Waymo concentrated investment on ride-hailing.

## Achievements

- Began as the Google self-driving car project in 2009 and completed ten uninterrupted 100-mile autonomous routes that year.
- Gave a legally blind passenger a fully autonomous public-road ride in Austin in 2015 in a vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals.
- Became the independent Alphabet company Waymo in 2016.
- Launched Waymo One in Metro Phoenix in 2018 as the first commercial autonomous ride-hailing service of its kind.
- Opened fully driverless paid service to the public in Metro Phoenix in 2020.
- Reported 15 million rides during 2025 and more than 20 million lifetime fully autonomous rides by early 2026.
- Reached more than 400,000 rides per week across six U.S. metropolitan areas by February 2026.
- Recorded 220.6 million rider-only miles through March 2026 across five measured operating geographies.
- Reported 94% fewer serious-or-fatal-injury crashes than human benchmarks across its measured 220.6 million rider-only miles.
- Raised $16 billion at a $126 billion post-money valuation in February 2026.

## Latest updates

- **2026-07** — Waymo said it would begin employee-only fully autonomous operations in Denver, Las Vegas, San Diego and Tampa, with public access expected later.
- **2026-07** — New Waymo research focused on comparing autonomous and human crash risk by time and location rather than treating all miles as equivalent.
- **2026-06** — Waymo introduced Premier, a program aimed at frequent riders, and opened Waymo One broadly in Nashville.
- **2026-06** — Waymo issued a software recall covering construction-zone behavior and resumed freeway operations after deploying updates and operational changes.
- **2026-05** — The company began preparing select public riders to try the Ojai, its rider-first vehicle and first platform planned for the sixth-generation Driver.
- **2026-04** — Waymo began specialist-supervised autonomous driving in London as a step toward a planned fully autonomous service.
- **2026-02** — Waymo raised $16 billion at a $126 billion post-money valuation and said it was preparing ride-hailing operations in more than 20 additional cities during 2026.

## Links

- Website: https://waymo.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/waymo
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/Waymo
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/waymo
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/waymo
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/waymo
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@waymo

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/waymo
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-14