Waymo Robotaxis Will Soon Roam The Streets Of Miami

Robotaxis will soon be cruising the palm tree-lined streets of Miami to collect data, hoping to start picking up fares for a driverless ride to various destinations in the Florida coastal city sometime in 2026. However, they won’t be from GM’s AV subsidiary Cruise – instead bearing the logo of rival autonomous vehicle company Waymo.

Waymo, an Alphabet Inc. autonomous vehicle subsidiary that evolved out of the Google Self-Driving Car project, is stealing a march on Cruise and expanding to yet another urban area according to a press release issued this week.

Waymo van

Miami will be Waymo’s first foothold in Florida, becoming the fifth city where it operates its robotaxis after two California cities – San Francisco and Los Angeles – as well as two Southwestern locales – Austin, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona. The company notes that its AVs give people about 150,000 rides weekly in its four current locations.

In doing so, the Alphabet subsidiary is partnering with Moove, following a fruitful collaboration between the two companies in Phoenix. Moove handles the logistics of the operation, including maintaining a network of charging stations for the robotaxis and managing both the fleet and the facilities it operates from.

Waymo operations VP Ryan McNamara says the partnership will enable the Cruise competitor to “provide safe, seamless trips for riders, and scale faster and more cost-effectively over time, with safety continuing to lead the way.” Meanwhile, Moove co-CEO and founder Lodi Delano remarked that the “safe, reliable, and convenient Waymo One service leads in autonomous technology, and together, we’re driving a major shift in urban mobility.”

The company’s Jaguar I-PACE EVs will be hitting Miami streets in the first months of 2025 in order to map out and “get acquainted” with the area. If all goes well, the robotaxis’ doors will open to the public in 2026. The expansion is likely paid for by the $5.6 billion in new funding Waymo secured just slightly over a month ago in late October. The company is also deploying Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric crossovers, a direct rival to the Cruise AV. While Waymo is expanding faster than Cruise, there have been occasional hiccups, such as complaints about the robotaxis honking constantly at each other while parking, though a fix has been released.

Magic City residents will eventually be able to order rides via the Waymo One app, with the company saying “Miami is known for its sun and fun” and that its “autonomous driving technology offers an opportunity to provide safer, more accessible, all-electric mobility to Miami’s residents and tourists.”