Alphabet’s self-driving company Waymo will soon be hitting highways. Operating on the highway is just one part of a rapid expansion plan that includes moving to six U.S. cities, entering international markets and launching service at airports, all while keeping safety first.
“We have to scale,” Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said today (October 27) while speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025. Mawakana said Waymo plans to increase the number of weekly self-driving rides from “hundreds of thousands” to 1 million by the end of 2026. The company already operates in Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta and Austin, but is looking to more than double its footprint by expanding to Miami, Dallas, Denver, Seattle, Nashville and Washington, D.C.
Mawakana said Waymo will begin operations in Miami early next year. Timetables for other cities will depend on local regulatory readiness. In some markets, she said, Waymo will launch “whenever it becomes available.” Other cities, like Washington, D.C., need to do more groundwork before rolling out fully self-driving services.
The company is also looking overseas. Last year, Waymo announced plans to test operations in Tokyo using human-driven cars to train its technology in Tokyo’s dense urban environment through a partnership with taxi companies GO and Nihon Kotsu. London is next: The company revealed earlier this month that it will start offering fully self-driving rides there in 2026.
Waymo’s expansion isn’t limited to geography—it’s heading down new types of roads. Until now, its vehicles have been mostly limited to surface streets. But the company has already begun highway testing with employee trials in Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco. “We thought it was important to conceptualize how this experience would be different from surface streets,” Mawakana said, adding that the highway rides will open to the public by the end of the year.
Mawakana said the shift to highways would also make it easier for Waymo to facilitate airport travel — a category the company is “super focused on.” Waymo already has permission to operate at the San Francisco and San Jose airports and hopes to receive more as its vehicles become more common on highways.
Unlocking more roads increases safety risks. Waymo publishes its safety data online, reporting that its vehicles are involved in 91% fewer high-severity crashes, 78% fewer airbag deployment crashes, and 80% fewer crashes causing injuries compared to human drivers. Mawakana said the company would “absolutely” slow its expansion if that record began to slip. “That’s what a safety-first culture means.”
Part of that culture, she added, is being transparent about the limitations of the technology. “I’m not going to tell you 100 percent of everything, but it does matter,” Mawakana said. “We have to have an open and honest conversation because we know it’s not perfect.”
