Waymo Set To Double To 20 Million Rides As Self-Driving Reaches Tipping Point

Waymo, Google's self-driving taxi service, has reached 10 million paid rides, marking a significant milestone in the transition to mainstream transportation. The company's growth shows exponential scaling, with rides increasing from 10,000 in August 2023 to over 250,000 currently. Waymo is on track to hit 20 million rides by the end of 2025. The growth is not just due to expansion into new markets, but also because existing markets have come to embrace self-driving cars. In California, Waymo's quarterly data showed a 2% increase in paid rides, followed by a 27% increase in March. This is the first time Waymo's growth slowed down for several months only to dramatically speed up again. Waymo currently operates in Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, with plans to expand to Austin, Atlanta, Miami, and Washington D.C. The service faces incoming competition from Tesla, which plans to launch its own robotaxi service in Austin this month. Despite raising $5.6 billion in funding last year, Waymo remains unprofitable.