Waymo Leads Competitors in Driveress Taxi Market

What Happened?

Technology company Waymo is averaging over 200,000 rides per week in its driverless taxis nation wide in the United States. The latest numbers put Waymo far ahead of any competitors in the driverless taxi market.

Waymo’s success has been concentrated in three cities, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Together that trio sees more driverless taxi rides per week than all other cities combined in the United States. 

I took a driverless Waymo taxi ride in Phoenix two weeks ago. The experience was pleasant, getting me to the airport right on time. 

Why it Matters

Tech companies and automakers have been trying to get driverless cars to work on a mass scale for the better part of the last decade. Waymo seems to have found a way to make the process work.

Waymo’s numbers are impressive. According to Fast Company, Waymo only began offering driverless rides to the public in 2020. By 2023, the company had completed more than one million driverless rides. 

In 2024 Waymo’s ride hailing service, which had over 700 cars on the road, completed four million more driverless rides. 

Waymo’s co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov said, “What we’ve done is prove to ourselves, and to the world, that not only does autonomy work, but it works at scale.” 

As a passenger, at first the experience feels a little unsettling when you look in the front and see no driver in the car with you. But after the car got going the ride itself felt much the same as it did for human driven cars. 

The ordering, payment, and scheduling of rides is all done through the Waymo app, which was efficient and convenient. 

With many younger people not getting drivers licenses at the same rate as older generations, the potential market for driverless cars is likely to grow. In addition, individuals with disabilities or older people who face declining eyesight and other physical challenges of age could find automated rides an appealing alternative to conventional taxis or reliance on family and friends.

While Waymo has been tight lipped about the specifics of how and why its driverless fleets work so well, the basic approach is well understood.

An array of sensors positioned on the exterior of each driverless car provides the necessary information about the surrounding environment to enable to self-driving software to successfully navigate both urban and rural roadways. 

How it Affects You

Waymo admits they are still a long way from having a self-driving service available on the same scale as Uber, but the recent successes in Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Franscisco are definite steps in the that direction. 

Driverless cars could enable riders to spend their time on work or leisure activities instead of on the road, which could be appealing to a wide range of potential demographics.