Waypoint: The official Waymo blog

Summer break is here, but we’re keeping our proverbial foot on the pedal. We’re preparing to launch fully autonomous operations in Denver, Las Vegas, San Diego, and Tampa. We’re also beginning to drive our newest vehicle—the Hyundai IONIQ 5—autonomously with a specialist present.

Going Fully Autonomous in Four New Cities
Waymo will soon begin driving fully autonomously, without a human specialist behind the wheel, in our four latest cities: San Diego, Las Vegas, Tampa, and Denver. While these rider-only operations will initially be for employees, we expect to welcome the public soon. These cities will join a growing network of over 10 cities where anyone can simply download an app and hail a fully autonomous Waymo vehicle to go where they want, 24/7, across our sizable service areas. If you’re in one of these four new cities, download the app to be notified when it’s time to ride.

Adapting to New Platforms: The Hyundai IONIQ 5
Beyond confidently navigating new cities, our 6th-generation Waymo Driver is also adapting to new vehicle platforms. We’ve begun autonomously driving, with an autonomous specialist present, our growing fleet of Hyundai IONIQ 5 vehicles. This phase allows us to validate our technology for fully autonomous operations as we work to bring riders even more ways to enjoy Waymo in the future.

Join us on our journey as we bring Waymo to more people, places, and platforms. Download the Waymo app today to get early access and be among the first to ride!

Starting today, anyone in Nashville can download the Waymo app and hail a fully autonomous ride. Since April, we’ve welcomed tens of thousands of riders from our interest list to experience the safety, reliability, and magic of Waymo, and now our vehicle doors are open to everyone.

As we welcome more riders, safety remains our north star. Our growth is built on real-world performance, rigorous testing, and extensive operational preparation. This ensures we can safely navigate fast-changing weather and collaborate with local safety partners. The Waymo Driver has been involved in 94% fewer crashes causing serious or fatal injuries than human drivers in the same conditions, and that standard carries into every mile we drive in Tennessee.

We’re already preparing for what’s next. We are testing at Nashville International Airport with hopes to serve travelers there in the near future. Plus, while you can hail a ride on the Waymo app today, you’ll also be able to ride through the Lyft app later this year.

Nashville’s warm welcome has shown just how much riders value Waymo’s reliability and accessibility. “As a blind person, every ride I have ever taken in my life has depended on someone else—a family member, a friend, a driver, or a stranger. Waymo changed that,” shared James Brown, President of the National Federation of the Blind of Tennessee. “It’s more than a new technology—it’s a level of independence, dignity, and opportunity that many blind people have never had the chance to experience.”

Ready to roll? Download the Waymo app and ride today!

Our latest analysis of the Waymo Driver’s safety performance now covers more than 220 million fully autonomous miles through the end of March 2026 — the equivalent of over 250 human lifetimes behind the wheel. We’ve analyzed five of our operating geographies, including Atlanta for the first time.

Our safety performance remains strong. Compared to human drivers in the same areas over the same period, the Waymo Driver was involved in 94% fewer crashes causing serious or fatal injuries, 82% fewer crashes in which an airbag deployed, and 82% fewer crashes involving any reported injury. Each comparison is made regardless of who was at fault in a collision.

This strong safety performance extends to the most vulnerable people on the road: Waymo experienced 93% fewer injury-causing crashes involving pedestrians, 84% fewer involving cyclists, and 84% fewer involving motorcyclists.

What stands out in this latest update is consistency of safety performance. Since our last analysis, we unified our San Francisco Bay Area service area, expanded into more complex environments including airport service, and reached statistical significance in Atlanta, with its own road layouts and traffic patterns. The operating environment changed substantially, but the safety performance remained robust.

Atlanta is a clear illustration. Across more than 5.4 million fully autonomous miles there, the Waymo Driver was involved in 94% fewer airbag-deployment crashes and 86% fewer injury-involving crashes than the human benchmark — both statistically significant. A typical driver covering those same miles in Atlanta would have been expected to be involved in roughly 1.2 crashes causing serious or fatal injuries. The Waymo Driver was involved in none.

These percentages describe a rate, but what they add up to is people. Waymo now drives more than 4 million miles every week. That translates to an estimated one fewer serious-injury-or-worse crash every eight days, and roughly six fewer airbag-deployment crashes and thirteen fewer crashes that cause any kinds of injuries each week.

Over the lifetime of our operations, these safety benefits accumulate for our riders and the communities we serve. Waymo has experienced an estimated 47 fewer crashes causing serious or fatal injuries, 305 fewer crashes that led to the deployment of an airbag in any involved vehicle, and 707 fear crashes causing injuries of any kinds than would be expected had those miles been driven by humans in the same places. As the Waymo Driver drives more miles, those totals keep growing.

Carol Flannagan, Research Professor at UMTRI said: “Waymo has reached the point where it is driving enough miles to make direct comparisons to human drivers on crash rates. The consistency of the results across locations helps support the strength of the conclusions, and their methods give significant attention to the challenges of making apples-to-apples comparisons when the data sources for humans and the Waymo vehicle are different. The focused results at intersections are particularly positive because intersections remain a significant safety challenge, especially for vulnerable road users.”

View the full data and methodology here. The Waymo Driver also undergoes a formal safety review before deployment on public roads. You can see the acceptance criteria used to evaluate its readiness in this paper.

The world’s largest 24/7 autonomous ride-hailing service just got bigger. Starting today, we’re growing our footprint in Miami, with expansions across Austin, Atlanta, Houston, and the San Francisco Bay Area following close behind. Over the next few weeks, Waymo will cover over 1,400 square miles across 11 cities—continuing to set the global benchmark for autonomous mobility at scale.

This growth helps us be “match-ready” as several of the cities we serve prepare for the FIFA World Cup. Waymo will be available in six U.S. host cities, providing residents and millions of international fans with a safe, seamless way to navigate the festivities. Whether you’re heading to the pitch for kickoff in Miami, a watch party in Los Angeles, or exploring all these cities have to offer, we’re making sure every ride feels like a win.

But our expansion isn’t just about the big games; it’s about the people who live here long after the final whistle. By expanding our service areas, we can reach more people for daily errands, late night trips, and special events—building community by connecting neighbors and supporting local businesses.

Waymo is coming to the Rose City! Portland has always been a pioneer in urban design, balancing its independent spirit with a deep commitment to sustainable, forward-thinking living. This unique blend of innovation and community makes it the perfect place for Waymo’s next chapter. We are actively working with state and city officials, as well as community partners, to create a regulatory path to deployment as we lay the groundwork for our future service.

Starting today, we’ll begin manually driving our vehicles to help familiarize the Waymo Driver with Portland’s distinct streetscapes—from its iconic bridges to its bustling, rain-slicked corridors. By following our rigorous safety framework, we aim to eventually provide both lifelong residents and first-time visitors with a safe, reliable, and stress-free way to move through the city.

“As a green transportation leader of one of the safest trucking companies in America, I’ve seen firsthand how emerging technology can transform safety for all road users,” said Keith Wilson, the Mayor of Portland. “We need every tool to help us meet our Vision Zero goals, and autonomous technology plays an increasingly important role in providing a safe, thriving, affordable multimodal transportation system.”

Bringing Waymo to Portland means supporting the city’s ambitious Vision Zero goals to eliminate traffic fatalities. The Waymo Driver is built on a foundation of safety, demonstrating a 13x reduction in serious injury crashes in cities where it operates, and we are eager to bring these life-saving benefits to the streets of Portland.

“The mission of MADD is to make roadways safe for everyone and key to that mission is ending impaired driving once and for all,” said Candace Reid, Program Director at MADD. “The safe deployment of autonomous vehicles can play a critical role in preventing individuals from making the illegal and often deadly decision to drive while impaired. That’s why we’re very excited about Waymo’s coming to Portland. MADD has been a long-time partner with Waymo and we are proud of our shared commitment to protect drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and the community from impaired driving.”

Ready to experience Waymo in Portland? Sign up for updates and be among the first to ride when we’re ready: waymo.com/updates.

We’re taking the next step toward bringing fully autonomous ride-hailing to London this year with the start of autonomous driving with trained specialists behind the wheel.

Since we arrived, we’ve put the Waymo Driver through closed course testing, and a team of trained, local professionals have driven the vehicles across tens of thousands of miles on London roads. The early mileage provides a baseline of context for the Waymo Driver, and has enabled our team to train the Driver in a simulated London environment. This methodical approach ensures the Waymo Driver safely generalises to new environments. The data from 170 million fully autonomous miles driven in the U.S. shows the Waymo Driver was involved in 92% fewer crashes that cause serious or fatal injuries compared to human drivers where we operate. At our current scale of over 4 million fully autonomous miles driven every week, our analysis suggests the Waymo Driver is preventing approximately one serious-injury crash every 8 days.

We’re also further investing in our UK team, bringing world-class talent to advance the AI architecture that underpins the Waymo Driver, support our operations, expand our business in Europe, and strengthen relationships with emergency services. And we’re working with our operations partners to scale up our driving and establish multiple AV service centres across London, staffed by a growing fleet management workforce.

Londoners have told us they want to use Waymo to and from social engagements and nightlife, leisure activities, and the city’s airports. We’re looking forward to complementing London’s transport network with our convenient, reliable, fully-electric ride-hailing service, connecting Londoners to the Tube, bus, or their destination with a quiet space to catch up on emails, relax, or make a private call.

If you want to follow the latest updates from London and be among the first to ride, sign up at https://waymo.com/waymo-in-uk/.