The autonomous taxi company Waymo has seen its share of users increase fivefold in just one year and is on pace to increase 20-fold by the end of 2025, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
While robotaxis may be an impressive novelty to much of the county, in the few cities where they've taken hold, the number of users embracing self-driving cabs is set to reach 20 million by the end of 2025. In the U.S., the service is only available in Pheonix, San Francisco, Austin, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley and in those markets Waymo earned 1 million total paid rides in late 2023. By the end of 2024, it hit 5 million. By the end of May 2025, it has already crossed 10 million and if trends hold the number of users could reach 20 million by the end of the year. Atlanta, Miami and Washington, D.C. are next in line with Boston, Nashville, New Orleans, Dallas, Las Vegas and San Diego soon to follow.
Dmitri Dolgov, Waymo's co-chief executive, said during a recent Google developers conference, "This is what exponential scaling looks like." While Waymo rides are currently more expensive than those of ridesharing giants Uber and Lyft, robotaxis provide their service without tips so the costs remain competitive.
Waymo, which is owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, began offering its services in 2023, and while the initial consumer reaction was hesitant, the test cities have come to embrace the concept. Co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana told the outlet, "I'm confident that in a year, we'll look back at this stage and realize Waymo was just getting started," adding, "Waymo's growth is a direct result of compounding progress across the company."
Yet despite the growth, Waymo reported a $4.4 billion loss, a figure that had Tesla CEO Elon Musk snipe, "The issue with Waymo's cars is they cost way-mo money." Noting that Waymo has a stellar safety record of 50 million driver's miles, "For us, it's really important to focus on safety and then cost," Mawakana said on CNBC. "Not cost and then safety."
While Waymo has the advantage of being first to market, the company has yet to turn a profit and will soon face a competitor in the form of Musk's Tesla Y-model set to premiere in Texas in June. The initial rollout will have 10 vehicles that are by invitation only to test safety protocols. "For the past several days, Tesla has been testing self-driving Model Y cars (no one in driver's seat) on Austin public streets with no incidents. A month ahead of schedule. Next month, first self-delivery from factory to customer," Musk posted on X on Thursday.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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