# Waymo’s robotaxis went from science project to rush hour

URL: https://ai-pulse.aglaganova.com/blog/waymos-robotaxis-went-from-science-project-to-rush-hour
Published: 2026-10-09
Author: Roman Aglaganov, Full-stack developer
Category: Industry
Region: North America
Tags: safety

> After 15 years of testing, cars with nobody in the driver’s seat now carry hundreds of thousands of paying passengers a week. They also honk at each other in car parks.

![A white Waymo Jaguar I-Pace with roof-mounted sensors driving on a San Francisco street, the skyline behind it](https://ai-pulse.aglaganova.com/api/media/file/waymo-2.jpg)

Self-driving cars were famously always five years away. Then, quietly, in a few American cities, they arrived. Waymo, which began as Google’s self-driving car project in 2009, started testing in Phoenix with no safety driver in 2017 and opened a public robotaxi service there in 2018. San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities followed.

## The numbers

By 2026 Waymo was operating commercial robotaxi services in ten US metro areas and providing around 500,000 paid rides a week. You open an app, a white electric Jaguar with a spinning sensor on the roof pulls up, and you get into the back of a car with nobody in the front. The novelty, by most accounts, wears off surprisingly quickly.

## Is it safe?

The best evidence so far is encouraging. A study with the insurer Swiss Re looked at 25.3 million fully driverless miles and compared insurance claims with human drivers on the same roads. Waymo cars were involved in 92% fewer bodily injury claims and 88% fewer property damage claims. In plain numbers: two bodily injury claims where human drivers would have been expected to produce 26.

That does not mean zero incidents. Waymo has recalled software after crashes, regulators have investigated, and in October 2025 a Waymo in San Francisco hit and killed KitKat, a much-loved local shop cat, which did the robotaxis’ popularity no favours.

## The funny bits

In 2024, residents of San Francisco’s SoMa district complained that Waymo cars were honking at each other in a nearby parking lot: robots, apparently, arguing over spaces. Another car once drove a passenger in circles around a car park for several minutes until it was sorted out remotely.

**Why it matters:** robotaxis are one of the first places where AI makes physical, split-second decisions around the public at scale. If they keep the safety record, they could change cities. They also raise a real question for the millions of people who drive for a living.

## Sources

- [Waymo: New Swiss Re study (December 2024)](https://waymo.com/blog/2024/12/new-swiss-re-study-waymo)
- [Wikipedia: Waymo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waymo)