Waymo Robotaxis Are Coming to Miami

Fresh off of successfully becoming a fixture of the streets of San Francisco and Los Angeles despite the pleas of pedestrians, Alphabet-owned robotaxi service Waymo announced plans to set up shop in Miami starting next year, according to an announcement made by the company Thursday.

Waymo has tested its vehicles in Florida in the past but said it will be “reacquainting” itself with the Sunshine State by rolling out Jaguar I-Pace electric vehicles equipped with its autonomous driving technology starting in early 2025. It plans to make rides widely available in 2026, allowing Miamians to order a ride through its Waymo One app.

The Miami fleet will be managed by Moove, an African-based mobility fintech company that offers vehicle financing to ride-hailing, logistics, and delivery drivers. The company, valued at $750 million, netted a $100 million investment from Uber earlier this year. Moove helps drivers finance vehicle purchases, locks them in with an annual interest rate of up to 13%, and deducts payments directly from the driver’s earnings until the loan is paid back—an arrangement that has allowed lower-income workers in developing regions to access the exploitative gig economy, but has largely failed to improve their material conditions.

Of course with Waymo, there is no driver—there is just the risk of a soulless, godless machine failing to identify street signs and bikers. The company claims that its driverless vehicles are significantly safer than the human alternative—last year, Waymo conducted an analysis of the more than seven million miles its vehicles have driven across Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco and found its autonomous system was 6.7 times less likely to be involved a crash and 2.3 times less likely to be in a police-reported accident than a human driver.

But the safety record isn’t spotless. Waymo is currently under a federal probe from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over a series of incidents in which the company’s vehicles were involved in accidents and allegedly violated traffic safety laws. According to the NHTSA, the investigation is focused on more than 20 cases that “involved collisions with clearly visible objects that a competent driver would be expected to avoid.” Waymo also issued two separate recalls for its autonomous software earlier this year in response to accidents, including one in which a Waymo vehicle hit a cyclist.

Despite the high-profile incidents, Waymo has pushed forward with its efforts to get driverless vehicles on the road. Earlier this year, the company made ride-hailing available to the public in both San Francisco and Los Angeles. It also opened up rides to select people in Austin, Texas, and announced plans to offer driverless rides in Atlanta, Georgia starting early next year.

The company has an uphill climb to gaining public trust, even as it starts sharing roads with more people across the country. According to a AAA survey published earlier this year, just 9% of drivers trust autonomous vehicles. That fear has only gotten worse as driverless cars have become more common, dropping from 15% of people trusting autonomous vehicles in 2022.