Waymo has announced that Washington, D.C., will be its next robotaxi city. The company intends to launch its Waymo One taxi service in the nation’s capital in 2026, although it recognizes that it will first need to change the city’s law that prohibits fully autonomous vehicles without drivers to ensure safety.
Currently, companies that want to test autonomous vehicles in D.C. are required to have a human driver behind the wheel in case something goes wrong. Technology advocates insist that the city council ease the restrictions and allow fully autonomous vehicles on public roads. A spokesperson for the D.C. Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alphabet’s self-driving vehicles have been spotted in D.C. since last year. Waymo’s product manager told a local publication that the company has primarily focused on neighborhoods such as Dupont Circle, Foggy Bottom, and Penn Quarter. Waymo has not commented on the size of its service area or what neighborhoods it will target if it launches next year.
Launching a robotaxi service in the heart of the federal government is a risky move. The feds have largely taken a backseat to regulating autonomous vehicles, leaving it up to the states to develop their own rules for safe deployment. Legislation that would dramatically increase the number of self-driving cars on the road has been stalled in Congress for more than seven years, as lawmakers disagree on a range of issues, including safety, liability, and the right number of exemptions to federal motor vehicle safety standards.
But beyond that, Washington, D.C., is a city in its own right with its own transportation problems. It has some of the worst traffic congestion in the United States due to a steadily growing population and stagnant infrastructure. Waymo did not say how many vehicles it intends to bring to Washington.
Waymo currently operates its self-driving cars in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. The company recently launched a partnership with Uber in Austin and plans to expand this agreement to Atlanta later this year. The company also plans to launch robotaxis in Silicon Valley and Miami.
In Washington, D.C., customers will use the Waymo One app to hail self-driving cars. Waymo currently provides 200,000 passenger rides per week using this app.
Washington, D.C., has already conducted autonomous tests before. Cruise, a now-defunct subsidiary of General Motors, tested several of its vehicles there. Another defunct company, Ford-backed Argo AI, also previously tested autonomous vehicles in the area.
Waymo has positioned itself as a safer option than human-driven cars. The company has released insurance data showing that its vehicles cause less property damage and fewer bodily injuries in accidents than cars driven by humans.
