Overview
Waymo is the autonomous driving company of Alphabet, Google's parent. It began in 2009 as Google's self-driving car project, was spun off as an independent subsidiary in December 2016, and operates the Waymo One robotaxi service together with the Waymo Via autonomous freight business.
History
Google started the project in 2009 and made it the independent company Waymo in December 2016. In December 2018 Waymo launched Waymo One, its first commercial paid robotaxi service, in Phoenix, Arizona; in 2020 it opened commercial service without a safety driver in parts of Phoenix. Service later expanded to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin and Atlanta, with some cities served in partnership with Uber through the Uber app. In February 2026 Waymo announced fully driverless operation in Nashville, Tennessee.
Scale and funding
According to a China Securities research report, in April 2025 Waymo provided paid service in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta and parts of Silicon Valley with more than 250,000 weekly trips; for 2025 cumulative rides exceeded 14 million and weekly trips exceeded 450,000. In February 2026 Waymo announced it had raised US$16 billion at a valuation of US$126 billion, and planned to serve at least 15 US cities by the end of 2026.