Waymo opens its robotaxi service to the public in Miami and Orlando

Waymo has taken an important step in expanding its operations by fully opening its autonomous vehicle service in the US cities of Miami and Orlando. A few weeks ago, as we already told you here in HighMotor, with the launch of Waymo’s operations in these two cities in Florida, the service was limited to a small group of users on a waiting list. Now that situation has changed completely, and any resident or visitor interested can download the Waymo app and request a driverless ride immediately.

With this decision, Miami and Orlando become the fifth and sixth cities, respectively, where Waymo offers its robotaxi service without restrictions. Previously, it was already available in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin. In addition, the company keeps five more cities in an early-access phase via waiting list: Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Nashville.

According to Waymo, more than 150,000 people had signed up on the open interest lists in Miami and Orlando in recent months. To offer its service in these two cities, Waymo followed its usual procedure. The company’s engineers first mapped the streets; then, once the transit areas were mapped, exhaustive tests were carried out with safety drivers and, finally, driverless rides were offered to company employees and to the first users who had shown interest by signing up on the waiting list.

Waymo takes you wherever you want

An important new feature for Miami is that, from day one, users can take trips on highways, something that had not been included right away in earlier launches. Although it is not yet available on all routes and requires a request through the mobile app, in cities like Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles this type of trip is already among the usual options.

Waymo thus consolidates its position as the current leader in the sector after raising 16 billion dollars from investors earlier this year. In 2026, the company plans to expand its service to 20 new cities, starting precisely with Miami and Orlando. In addition, its arrival in London is eagerly anticipated, as it will become the first European city where Waymo begins operations and the first market with left-hand driving, an additional challenge for its Artificial Intelligence systems.