Waymo readies driverless rides in San Diego, Las Vegas, Tampa and Denver, staff first

Previously

In Parts 1 to 4, Waymo published a claims study, passed 4 million rides in a year, expanded across Silicon Valley and began freeway trips in three metros. Fares and per-ride costs were never disclosed.

July 2026 — Waymo is taking the humans out of the driver's seat in four more cities, starting with its own employees. Here's what changed since Part 4 (November 2025), what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of July 8, 2026)

New driverless cities: San Diego, Las Vegas, Tampa and Denver, initially for employees; the public "soon." (Waymo)
Network: "over 10 cities" where anyone can hail a ride. (Waymo)
Fleet: about 4,000 robotaxis as of May, with fifth- and sixth-generation systems, per NHTSA filings. (CNBC)
Rides: more than 20 million to date; a target of 1 million weekly trips by year-end. (CNBC)
Funding: $16 billion raised in February. (CNBC)
Launch costs and fares: not disclosed.

What Waymo announced

Waymo said it will "soon begin driving fully autonomously, without a human specialist behind the wheel" in the four cities. Rider-only trips are for employees first. Waymo also said it had begun driving its growing fleet of Hyundai Ioniq 5 vehicles autonomously, with a specialist on board, to validate them for future driverless service.

CNBC reported that employee rides would start "in the coming weeks," followed by broader rollouts. Waymo first announced plans for these cities in 2025.

Denver's details

Waymo spokesperson Sandy Karp told The Colorado Sun that public service would come "later this year." She said Denver riders "will be among the first to experience the Ojai." The Ojai is the rebranded Zeekr robotaxi, TechCrunch reported in January (TechCrunch). Zeekr is a wholly owned unit of Geely Automobile Holdings, part of China's Geely group, according to Geely's Dec. 22, 2025 filing with the Hong Kong exchange (HKEX). It said the Ojai carries sixth-generation technology and was designed for snowier conditions.

Service will cover select Denver neighborhoods, including RiNo, Baker and Cherry Creek, the Sun reported. Waymo hopes to serve Denver International Airport later. The company would not say how many employees it has in Denver.

Why cold-weather cities matter

Waymo picked Denver last fall as one of its next launch cities, the Sun reported, alongside New York and Washington, D.C., for their cold weather. Before employee rides began, Karp said, Waymo spent "several months" in Denver "familiarizing the Waymo driver with the city, establishing local teams to support our service, and working closely with community members." The Sun said Las Vegas, San Diego and Tampa were slated for employee service soon after Denver.

Waymo estimates that, as of March, its vehicles had driven 220.6 million miles without a human driver the Sun reported. Waymo's safety hub, with data through March 2026, put that at 94% fewer crashes causing serious injury or worse than human drivers would have had over the same distance in its cities, and 82% fewer crashes with an airbag deployment or any injury. Those are Waymo's own figures: they count crashes regardless of who was at fault, against a human benchmark built from police-reported crashes in the same cities (Waymo). CNBC added that Waymo planned to start service in London, its first international market, later in 2026.

Rivals

CNBC said Zoox was preparing public service in Austin and Miami later in 2026, and Tesla was pushing beyond Austin into other parts of Texas and Miami. The Sun added that NHTSA data showed automated driving systems averaging about 120 reported crashes a month in the first four months of 2026, up from a monthly average of 85 the year before.

What went wrong

Flooded roads. Some Waymos drove into flooded roadways after extreme weather, CNBC reported.
Dead batteries. Over the Fourth of July, several San Francisco cars were stuck in traffic so long that their batteries died; another was seen driving into fireworks.
Public waits. None of the four cities had public riders at the cutoff. Waymo gave no date beyond "soon" and, for Denver, "later this year."
What we don't know yet: fleet size per city, Ojai production volumes, and how the Zeekr-built vehicle performs in snow.

Our follow-up question for Waymo

How many Ojai vehicles will serve Denver at launch, and where is final assembly of the Waymo hardware done?

Later developments (added Oct. 2026)

On Sept. 1, 2026, Axios reported on Waymo's plans for the Zeekr-built Ojai amid the U.S. Commerce Department's crackdown on Chinese connected-vehicle technology. (Axios)
On Aug. 14, 2026, California regulators approved Waymo's expanded service area and the Ojai platform. See Part 6. (CPUC)
On Oct. 14, 2026, Waymo said anyone in San Antonio, San Diego and Tampa could hail a ride, and that it had "welcomed hundreds of thousands of riders in these cities since opening our service earlier in the year." (Waymo)

Sources

Waymo, The Waymo Team, “From the road — July 8, 2026,” July 8, 2026. waymo.com
CNBC, Jennifer Elias, “Waymo to start driverless rides in 4 more U.S. markets as expansion accelerates,” July 8, 2026. cnbc.com
The Colorado Sun, Tamara Chuang, “Waymo launching robotaxi service in Denver. But only for its own workers.,” July 8, 2026. coloradosun.com
California Public Utilities Commission, Joshua Huneycutt, disposition letter on Waymo Advice Letters 0004 and 0004-A, Aug. 14, 2026. cpuc.ca.gov
Waymo, The Waymo Team, “From the road — October 14, 2026,” Oct. 14, 2026. waymo.com
Geely Automobile Holdings, “Overseas Regulatory Announcement: Termination of U.S. Reporting Obligations with the SEC,” HKEX, Dec. 22, 2025. www1.hkexnews.hk
TechCrunch, Kirsten Korosec, “Waymo is rebranding its Zeekr robotaxi,” Jan. 7, 2026. techcrunch.com
Axios, Joann Muller, “Waymo's cheaper robotaxis collide with China crackdown,” Sept. 1, 2026. axios.com
Waymo, “Waymo safety impact” hub, data through March 2026 (Wayback Machine capture, Aug. 1, 2026). web.archive.org

Disclosure: [not in copy] Editor placeholder