San Francisco It seems designed to test an autonomous car: slopes impossible, historic trams and trolleybuses, cyclists and scooters, tourists, construction sites and heavy traffic. Waymo, which belongs to Alphabetthe matrix of Googleoperates as a company VTC in which the entire fleet is made up of brand vehicles Jaguarand they do not have a driver.
The iconic city of the Golden Gate became the test laboratory for the last bet in 2023 technological-automotive of the Baythe so-called robotaxisand seems to have passed the exam with flying colors. If in May 2024 the company registered 50,000 weekly trips, in May of this year it closed with 500,000 trips per week.
The user requests the service from his mobile phone, it arrives empty, he opens the doors and starts smoothly, cautiously. The scene still sounds futuristic seen from Spain, but it is already part of the urban landscape in 11 cities in the United Stateswhich are equivalent to a total of more than 3,600 square kilometers. The experimental has become completely normalized, although within limited maps and under very strict permissions.
Coinciding with the Soccer World CupWaymo has expanded its services in six of the host citieslike Miamiand plans to grow in Austin, Atlanta, Houston and also in San Francisco Bay, with the entire peripheral area.
A taxi without a taxi driver
The user requests the trip, the car comes, makes the route and charges for the trip. Beyond cars with driving aids, there is no driver here at all. He steering wheel maneuvers aloneand a very large poster ask the passenger not to touch it under any circumstances.
The car combines cameras, laser sensors, high-precision radars and artificial intelligence. With all that identifies lanes, traffic lights, pedestrians, cyclists, parked vehicles, works and signs. The system reconstructs what is happening around it and decides whether to accelerate, brake, wait or turn.
The passenger, who Can be mounted in the back seat or in the passenger seatobserve on the screen how the sensors detect in real time and resolve each unexpected situation: a car in a double row, a bike that appears in a blind spot, a poorly placed barrier, a pedestrian who crosses late or an ambulance that forces you to react.
San Francisco has been the perfect laboratory for Waymo. And, although it is expanding little by little, it is not yet found throughout the country. For now, this fleet can circulate within delimited areas: It’s no use ordering a Waymo in San Francisco and asking it to take you to another city.. It depends on maps, sensors, permissions and defined operating conditions.
An autonomous taxi from the company Waymo, in a testing period in the city of San Francisco. / AP
The European door
Waymo has chosen London as the first major European gateway, in theory this year, with the aim of landing on the Old Continent via the fast track while trying to make its way with the most complicated bureaucracy in the European Union. It is not only about approving an automated vehicle, but also about allowing it to provide a driverless urban servicewith insurance, civil liability, licenses, municipal regulations and fit with taxi and VTC.
Spain does not have a Waymo announced, but Madrid It already appears on the robotaxi map. WeRide, Uber and AVOMO (one of Uber’s partners in the US) announced last week that they would begin experimenting with a commercial pilot in the Community of Madrid, available from the Uber app and with trained operators inside the vehicle in the first phase. For its part, the DGT has created a program to authorize testing of automated vehicles on roads open to traffic.
The American company is also taking lead steps in Asia. It is currently in the testing and mapping phase in Tokyo, without daring to enter into China, which has its own versions of robotaxi. However, Waymo does have a headquarters in the Philippines. The American company assures that it offers remote advice and support to robotaxis, “but does not directly control, operate or drive the vehicle”according to the company’s response to a request for information from the US Congress.
Security under scrutiny
Available data places Waymo among robotaxis with more accidents reportedbut that does not automatically mean that it is the most dangerous, since it is also one of the companies with the most kilometers has traveled without a human driver.
Until April 2026, official traffic data in the US pointed to about 1,820 accidents involving Waymo vehicles, not necessarily caused by them. The company itself defends that, in fact, its vehicles register Lower accident rates compared to human drivers: 0.71 injury accidents per million miles, versus 3.90 in its adjusted human benchmark. It also reports 0.02 accidents with serious injuries or deaths per million miles, compared to 0.22 in humans.
And, although Waymo does not currently show a high accident rate, its operational risks will continue under public, technical and political surveillance. Above all, when landing in Europe is on the table.
Subscribe to continue reading
