If the future is now, society will have to endure some growing pains as we adjust to the new normal.
Waymo has become the unquestioned leader in commercial autonomous driving.
Waymo timeline:
- Founded in 2009
- Passed the first U.S. state self-driving test in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2012
- Alphabet spins Waymo out as a separate subsidiary in 2016
- As of July 2025, Waymo One is available 24/7 to customers in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and the San Francisco Bay Area
- Waymo’s current fleet features over 1,500 vehicles
- By 2026, Waymo expects to add 2,000 more vehicles
Waymo says compared to those with human drivers, its autonomous vehicles have been involved in 88% fewer crashes with serious injuries.
Still, nearly 80% of California voters support requiring a human safety operator in self-driving trucks and delivery vehicles, and just 33% of voters express a favorable general impression of autonomous vehicles.
Groups such as Safe Street Rebels, however, say they have documented hundreds of crashes and failures by autonomous vehicles over the years.
Image source: Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
California police pull over Waymo for illegal U-turn
Police in San Bruno, autonomous vehicle crashes and failuresers last week when they spotted a white Jaguar driving erratically.
Officers pulled the car over after witnessing it make an illegal U-turn at a traffic light in front of them, but got a surprise the closer they got to the vehicle.
“It was a first for both officers,” when they realized there was no driver behind the wheel of the vehicle, according to a San Bruno Facebook post.
The officers could not issue a ticket to the driverless vehicle, so they contacted Waymo instead to inform the company about the “glitch.”
“Since there was no human driver, a ticket couldn’t be issued (our citation books don’t have a box for ‘robot.’ Hopefully, the reprogramming will keep it from making any more illegal moves,” the police said.
California law currently does not allow moving violations, but AB 1777 will change all of that once it takes effect in 2026.
California changes laws on autonomous driving liability
Last September, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1777 into law.
The law makes manufacturers, not drivers, responsible for certain violations committed by autonomous vehicles, but some critics say the law does not go far enough.
Related: Tesla Robotaxi pulls ahead of Waymo in San Francisco
The law allows law-enforcement agencies to report instances of autonomous vehicle “noncompliance” to the Department of Motor Vehicles.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the California DMV is developing specifics, including potential penalties.
Waymo announces robotaxi expansion plans
Last month, Waymo announced that it would begin test-driving its autonomous vehicles in Denver in the fall.
Waymo will bring its fleet of Jaguar I-PACE vehicles, the fifth-generation Waymo Driver, and Zeekr RT vehicles equipped with its latest tech.
It also says it has trained its model to handle the cold-weather terrain it will encounter in Denver.
“Our next-generation system is informed by years of winter weather experience across Michigan, upstate New York, and the Sierra Nevada and engineered to autonomously sustain operations in harsher climates,” the company said in a recent blog post.
Related: Waymo makes major robotaxi decision in key cities
The company is also expanding to Seattle, which Waymo says has been one of the “early leaders in autonomous vehicle testing.”
Waymo says it has spent years canvassing the area due to its unique weather and layout, and that data has informed its tech as it operates in other cities.
City dwellers have not been kind to Waymo or other autonomous driving
Urban centers have large clusters of college-educated citizens, so one would think that cities embrace forward-looking tech like autonomous driving with open arms.
However, this could not be further from the truth.
Advocacy groups are making their voices heard in New York City, where Waymo recently received permission to conduct tests.
“This was a pilot initiated with very little public input,” Michael Sutherland, a policy researcher with Open Plans, told Gothamist. “From a safety perspective, this is a technology that hasn’t been tested out in incredibly dense cities like New York City.”
Advocacy groups are making their voices heard in New York City, where Waymo recently received permission to conduct tests.
“This was a pilot initiated with very little public input,” Michael Sutherland, a policy researcher with Open Plans, told Gothamist. “From a safety perspective, this is a technology that hasn’t been tested out in incredibly dense cities like New York City.”
Related: Alphabet’s Waymo flexes on Tesla Robotaxi with latest update
