Waymo expands to three more cities: Minneapolis, New Orleans, and Tampa

Waymo is eyeing three new cities as it continues to expand across the United States: Minneapolis, New Orleans, and Tampa.

The company announced Thursday that it will begin manually driving its vehicles in these cities “in the coming days” ahead of testing and validating its unmanned technology, and will eventually launch commercial robo-taxi services in each city.

These cities join a growing list of locations where Waymo has launched or plans to launch robotaxis. The Alphabet-owned company already offers ride-hailing services on city streets and highways in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix, and also has locations in Austin and Atlanta.

In 2026, Waymo plans to expand to Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, San Antonio, San Diego, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. It is also testing in New York City and plans to offer commercial rides internationally, starting with London and Tokyo.

However, the new city announced Thursday could pose some unique challenges for Waymo. Minneapolis has perhaps the harshest winter of any city Waymo has ever selected. Snow can challenge Waymo’s recognition stack, and the lack of traction can require additional work from the self-driving system. New Orleans, on the other hand, has many narrow, one-way streets that are frequently used by pedestrians, especially in the French Quarter.

As Waymo has expanded, it has worked with partners in many cities to help operate its fleet. The company’s vehicles are listed on Uber’s app in Austin and Atlanta, African mobility and fintech company Move will take over operations in Phoenix (and will do so in Miami), and Avis Budget Group will manage the fleet in Dallas. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Waymo would rely on similar partnerships in new cities.

Waymo has so far outperformed other players when it comes to expanding into new cities. Amazon-owned Zoox is offering free rides in its custom robotaxis in Las Vegas and allowing members of its early ride program to travel in San Francisco while it waits for a waiver from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration needed to begin full-scale commercial operations.

Meanwhile, Tesla is still trying to expand its nascent robotaxi service, which features a safety monitor in the driver’s seat. This week, the company received permission to start providing ride-hailing services in Arizona, in addition to Austin and San Francisco.