Waymo is scaling fast: Here’s what the fleet data shows

Waymo’s commercial robotaxi ramp-up looks expansive, both in geographic reach and in ridership. And , it is — until you pay attention to where the bulk of those robotaxis are actually showing up. The numbers over the past two years reflect the kind of commercial rollout you’d expect from a deep-pocketed company like Waymo, which spun out of Google and still counts Alphabet as its majority owner. In September 2024, Waymo was operating in just three cities — Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Today, it offers robotaxi service in 15 U. S. cities, with most of those commercial launches occurring in the past year. Ridership has skyrocketed, too, with Waymo now averaging 500,000 paid robotaxi rides every week. But a closer look at its fleet shows a company concentrating its efforts in just two states. About 80% of Waymo’s roughly 4,000 robotaxis are in California and Texas, and Texas is where the action is now: Waymo’s fleet there has grown , fueled by a new Chinese-built minivan the company is betting will help it scale, even as tariffs drive up its costs. The other 800 or so vehicles are spread across cities in other states, including Arizona and Florida, another burgeoning hot spot. Most are the familiar white Jaguar I-Pace electric SUVs, but a growing number are the new minivans — a modified Zeekr RT that Waymo has branded “Ojai.” Waymo’s focus on California is no surprise. It is headquartered in Silicon Valley, and much of its early testing and development work was conducted there. Plus, a segment of the population there is inclined to adopt tech at its earliest stages. The recent growth in Texas is more interesting. Waymo has increased its Texas fleet by 49% in the past three weeks, according to state vehicle registrations and data from the Texas Autonomous Vehicle Fleet Tracker. As of September 24, Waymo had 1,102 autonomous vehicles registered in the state. Waymo first launched in commercial service in Austin through a partnership with Uber in March 2025, letting riders hail its robotaxis through the Uber app. Since then, the company has expanded its robotaxi services in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Waymo’s Texas fleet remained relatively static for most of the summer, inching up from about 600 vehicles in June to more than 700 . Then came September, when the fleet surged, driven , which now make up about a third of Waymo’s Texas fleet. Expect that share to grow. The Ojai robotaxi, equipped with Waymo’s sixth-generation self-driving system, is supposed to help Waymo reach mass scale.