Investing.com — Waymo is done proving that autonomous driving works. Now it wants to prove it can scale. By the end of 2026, the company aims to surpass one million paid rides each week.
In a wide-ranging conversation with Bloomberg Tech, Waymo co-chief executive Tekedra Mawakana outlined what comes next for the Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)-backed company, widely seen as the clear leader in the robotaxi race. Fresh off a $16 billion funding round that values the company at $126 billion, Waymo is accelerating expansion across the United States while preparing for its first major international launches in London and Tokyo. At the same time, it is navigating regulatory headwinds, ongoing safety investigations, and intensifying competition from rivals such as Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA).
For Mawakana, the funding round is less about bragging rights and more about validation. After more than a decade of work turning autonomous driving from a research project into a commercial reality, she describes the raise as a vote of confidence in both the technology and the team behind it. Alphabet will provide the bulk of the capital, but the arrival of new investors like Sequoia, DST, and Dragon marks what she calls an inflection point for the business.
Waymo ended last year having quadrupled the number of trips it provided, delivering 15 million rides in a single year and surpassing 20 million lifetime rides. The service now operates across six US cities and handles roughly 400,000 paid trips each week. Miami is the most recent launch, and the company is laying the groundwork for more than 20 additional cities this year alone.
That growth, Mawakana argues, is being driven by two things that investors and regulators increasingly care about. Consumer adoption and safety outcomes. Waymo reports that across 127 million miles of driving, it has recorded 90 percent fewer serious injury-causing crashes than human drivers and 82 percent fewer airbag deployments. Those numbers sit at the core of the company’s pitch to cities and states that remain cautious about fully autonomous vehicles.
Scaling a robotaxi business, however, is not just a technical problem. It is also a regulatory one. Some of the most important transportation hubs in the world remain closed to driverless services, New York City chief among them. Waymo has already received permits to conduct supervised autonomous testing in New York State and believes it could eventually be the first company to launch a fully autonomous service there. But city rules still require a human operator inside the vehicle, a barrier that has yet to be removed.
Mawakana is realistic about the pace of progress. Winning access to markets like New York will require patience, data, and trust. She describes it as chiseling away over time, demonstrating safety outcomes and building public support. In the meantime, Waymo has seen organic campaigns emerge in cities where it does not yet operate, with residents calling for access to the service. Parents of children who may never drive, she notes, often frame robotaxis as a safer path to independence.
The newly raised capital will be split between expanding the fleet and continuing to invest in technology. Waymo is focused on execution in the year ahead, scaling operations across new cities while continuing to bring down hardware costs and improve unit economics. Its fleet already includes fully electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles, with newer models like the Zeekr and Hyundai Ioniq 5 coming online.
High-profile moments have also helped cement Waymo’s place in everyday life. During Super Bowl weekend in the Bay Area, visitors used Waymo vehicles to travel between airports, hotels, and Levi’s Stadium. Mawakana sees those events as proof that the service is no longer a novelty. Riders use it for doctor appointments, errands, school pickups, weddings, and even trips to and from the hospital with newborns. Big cultural moments simply amplify that familiarity.
International expansion marks the next chapter. London will serve as Waymo’s first major European launch, even outside the European Union. UK regulators, Mawakana says, have been forward-leaning and open to exploring how autonomous vehicles could reduce road deaths. In Tokyo, Waymo is working with established taxi partners to integrate autonomous technology into a system already deeply trusted. Rather than displacing drivers overnight, the company is positioning autonomy as a gradual evolution supported by local institutions.
Safety scrutiny remains intense. Federal investigators are reviewing two recent incidents involving Waymo vehicles, including a low-speed collision with a child in Santa Monica and interactions with parked school buses. Mawakana says the company welcomes the investigations and has already deployed software updates while partnering with school districts to learn from additional data. In her view, transparency and cooperation are essential to earning long-term trust.
Waymo’s technical approach also sets it apart from some competitors. The company relies on a redundant sensor suite that includes cameras, lidar, and radar, rather than a vision-only system. Mawakana has little interest in debating philosophies. She points instead to results. Waymo removed human drivers in 2020 and today operates the only twenty-four-seven fully autonomous ride service at scale in the United States. Nearly 200 million autonomous miles later, the company believes its approach has been validated.
Asked how she will measure success, Mawakana offers a clear near-term goal. By the end of 2026, Waymo expects to be delivering more than one million paid trips per week. But she quickly adds another metric that matters just as much. Maintaining the safety culture that underpins everything the company does. For Waymo, scale without trust is not success.
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