Waymo's Robot Taxis Break the Next Record

Mobility Waymo's Robot Taxis Break the Next Record

2025-04-30 Source: dpa 2 min Reading Time

The robotaxi business is not doing badly. The Google subsidiary Waymo has now reached an important milestone with it.

As early as February, Waymo reached a record milestone in terms of trips with its robotaxi.(Image: Waymo) — As early as February, Waymo reached a record milestone in terms of trips with its robotaxi.
(Image: Waymo)

Waymo wants to quickly establish its robotaxi before vehicles from Elon Musk pose competition, as it is said. This seems to be working, as Google CEO Sundar Pichai emphasizes that the self-driving Waymo taxis now already complete over 250,000 rides per week. In February, they had reached the 200,000 mark. Waymo started on the platform of the ride-hailing service Uber in Austin and expanded the service from San Francisco into Silicon Valley. Next year, the robotaxis are also set to operate in the U.S. capital, Washington, among other places. During a conference call with analysts, Pichai for the first time suggested the possibility of serving private individuals with Waymo's autonomous driving software. According to him, they intend to develop nothing less than the best driver in the world.

Just last week it was revealed that Volkswagen is also considering self-driving cars via Uber on U.S. roads for 2026. And Elon Musk said that Tesla plans to launch its own robotaxi service in Austin, Texas at the end of June—initially with 10 to 20 Model Y compact SUVs. However, Musk always claims that most new Tesla vehicles already have everything necessary on board to drive autonomously. Therefore, the Tesla CEO talks about soon having millions of self-driving Teslas, aiming for a market share of over 90 percent. He also announced that by the end of the year, autonomous driving would be enabled for private Tesla owners in several U.S. cities. But Musk has been preaching this for years, which is why industry insiders remain skeptical. Musk relies on cameras for environmental detection, while Waymo prefers laser-based radar systems (Lidar), which apparently operate more safely but are also significantly more expensive.

US Agency Could Support Tesla Endeavor

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is meanwhile planning to somewhat relax the information requirements for manufacturers in accidents involving driver assistance systems. This could help Tesla with its Autopilot system. However, there are also several investigations by the NHTSA into Autopilot accidents. As media reported, the agency was also affected by personnel cuts due to Musk's cost-cutting measures in the U.S. government. However, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly assured that there will be no conflicts of interest in the activities of the tech billionaire.

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Date: 08.12.2025

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