On Tuesday, Alphabet’s self-driving unit Waymo announced that its fully autonomous ride-hailing service may start operating in Washington, D.C., next year. The company stated
“We will also work closely with policymakers to formalize the legal framework needed to operate without a human behind the wheel, as Washington, D.C. does not currently allow for fully autonomous operations,”
Currently, Waymo provides more than 200,000 paid passenger trips each week in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin. It plans to include Atlanta and Miami in the list. In 2024, the company provided more than 4 million commercial trips.
In October 2024, Waymo stated that
as the company looks to expand its autonomous ride-hailing services despite regulatory checks, it had closed a $5.6 billion funding round led by the parent company Alphabet.
In May 2024, the US auto safety regulator opened an investigation into Waymo after 22 accident reports of its robotaxis. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that the robotaxis displayed driving behavior that potentially violated safety laws. In a letter, the NHTSA stated that the robotaxis
“involved collisions with clearly visible objects that a competent driver would be expected to avoid.”
In February 2024, the Robotaxi service provider recalled 444 vehicles after two minor collisions in Arizona. The company explained that a software error could result in inaccurate predictions of objects toward the vehicle, thus causing accidents. The announcement came after a crowd vandalized and set fire to a Waymo taxi in San Francisco.
While announcing the company’s provision of services in Washington, D.C., Waymo stated that based on collision data from more than 50 million rider-only miles, Waymo’s self-driving vehicles have been involved in 81% fewer injury-causing crashes than average human drivers.
Wymo is a self-driving vehicle service company based in the US. The company was founded in 2009 by Sebastian Thrun. Self-driving vehicles use AI to calculate safe routes, allowing them to respond in real time to the traffic environment. In February 2025, the company introduced Drivership, a new framework for good driving, whether fully autonomous, human, or somewhere in between. In December 2024, the company partnered with Nihon Kotsu and Go, which will bring autonomous vehicles to Tokyo for international road trips. The company stated
‘There, our Driver will learn and adapt to left-hand traffic and new driving nuances associated with operating in one of the world’s most densely populated urban environments.’
NHTSA is a US driving regulatory authority that has conducted investigations against self-driving vehicles, including General Motors Cruise and Amazon.com’s Zoox.
