Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving tech unit, Waymo, anticipates more than quadrupling its ride service through 2027 by looking forward to handling a minimum one million robotaxi rides as it steps into new U.S. cities and also begins operating in the U.K. along with Japan. Apparently, it is the first time that the company, which began its operations in 2009 as a part of the Google Self-Driving Car project, has gone ahead and set a pretty steep target for its business.
At present, the company, which is based out of Mountain View, California, goes on to book over one million robotaxi rides per month in the cities of Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco, along with Bay Area communities like Austin, Atlanta, and, as of January 2026, Miami. According to Waymo, as per a blog post, that is a number that showcases that they indeed are on the path to hit per week by the end of 2026. The statement added that. “As we look to 2026, we’re laying the early groundwork for ride-hailing operations in over 20 additional cities in 2026, including international cities like Tokyo and London.”
It is worth noting that Waymo does not spill the beans on its financial data; however, there are many estimates that suggest that it makes a minimum of $20 per ride, which apparently adds up to over $20 million per month. The fact is that at 1 million rides per week, its yearly revenue would hit almost $1 billion, which is indeed a landmark when it comes to the early-stage robotaxi market.
In order to handle that volume of rides, the fleet of the company is likely going to expand to a minimum of 10,000 vehicles in the forthcoming year from over 2,500 now, likely including electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 hatchbacks as well as Zeekr RT microvans apart from the present Jaguar I-Pace SUVs.
Interestingly, although the service has indeed become popular with riders, the fast growth of Waymo is also getting in the way of certain novel barriers. The reputation of the company when it comes to safety has taken a hit in San Francisco, for instance, after the accidental killing in October 2025 of Kit Kat, which is a popular neighborhood feline that apparently crawled under one of its vehicles without getting detected by sensors. In January 2026, a Waymo taxi mowed down a small dog in San Francisco that ran into the street. Both these incidents have gone on to raise certain serious questions on whether the company, which by the way has not had serious accidents or fatalities that involved humans, has to have additional safety evaluations.
Besides this, Waymo recently also announced a fleetwide recall so as to upgrade software after reports started floating around that its robotaxis in Texas did not stop when they encountered school buses that were parked.
Waymo’s chief safety officer, Mauricio Peña, said in a statement that “While we are incredibly proud of our strong safety record showing Waymo experiences 12 times fewer injury crashes involving pedestrians than human drivers, holding the highest safety standards means recognizing when our behavior should be better.”
However, despite all that has been said, the safety record of Waymo has been better as compared to other competitors as far as the robotaxi space is concerned. These competitors include the likes of Cruise, a unit from General Motors, which was shut down in 2025 after one of its vehicles hit a pedestrian in San Francisco. Tesla, whose CEO Elon Musk goes on to claim that it is a leader in autonomous driving, happens to be dealing with certain ongoing legal issues that are linked to its Full Self-Driving feature and numerous accidents and fatalities that are connected to its use. Recently, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirmed that it is expanding an ongoing probe when it comes to FSD.
The fact is that although the safety issues related to Waymo thus far haven’t been as critical, there are some who think that it is apparently expanding way faster ahead of a probable IPO of the unit.
An autonomous driving researcher and Carnegie Mellon University professor, Phil Koopman, said in a blog post that “We are left to wonder why the ‘world’s most experienced driver’ still struggles to handle obviously foreseeable circumstances after 100 million miles of experience.” “Waymo has every incentive to continue their expansion juggernaut using this same playbook until they get their IPO or they suffer a mishap they can’t shrug off. It’s unclear which will happen first.”
