What AI can now do·May 20, 2025·Everyday

Waymo passes 10 million paid driverless rides, 250,000 a week

Waymo (Alphabet)

250,000+Paid rides per week (Q1 2025)

Waymo reported 10 million paid robotaxi trips (doubling in five months) across Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin, with more than 250,000 paid rides a week per Alphabet's Q1 2025 report; by March 2026 it was about 500,000 a week in 10 cities.

How far it has travelled

From a demonstration to real life, in five steps. Empty steps are the point: a demonstration is not a deployment.

Demonstratedshown once, by its developer or a researcher
yes · May 20, 2025 · Co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana announced 10M paid trips at Google I/O (May 20, 2025); more than 250,000 paid rides a week per Alphabet's April 2025 earnings; not yet profitable. source
Reproducedshown again by someone else
partial · Jul 8, 2026 · Tesla's Austin robotaxi (June 2025) ran roughly 20 driverless vehicles over about 245 square miles by mid-2026 per third-party tracking; Cruise's driverless service ended after the 2023 pedestrian-dragging incident. source
Accessibleavailable to the public or to customers
yes · Jul 8, 2026 · Public app service in 11 US cities by mid-2026 (Las Vegas added July 2026), service area past 1,400 square miles, roughly 3,000-3,500 vehicles; about 500,000 paid rides a week by March 2026. source
Reliableworks most of the time on a defined task
yes · Sep 24, 2026 · Waymo's own analysis through June 2026 (270M fully autonomous miles, five cities): 82% fewer injury-causing crashes and 95% fewer serious-injury-or-worse crashes than human benchmarks, regardless of fault. source
Real consequenceshas changed something in the world, for good or ill
yes · Jun 15, 2026 · Robotaxis illegally passed stopped school buses (recall Dec 2025, NTSB probe), struck a child near a school (Jan 2026) and drove into freeway work zones (recall June 2026); Waymo targets 1 million paid rides a week by end-2026. source

What this could change for you

A ride with no driver is an ordinary choice in a dozen US cities, with far fewer injuries per mile and a new kind of accident that no one is behind the wheel for.

Incidents it made possible

Sources

primary source, second source.

A milestone is a dated, sourced result that moved what AI can do; a stage is upgraded only when a source shows it (a reproduction, a public release, production evidence, a documented consequence). “Unknown” is the honest default.