Waymo is taking the protection operators out of its fleet of robotaxis in Miami beginning immediately, forward of a business launch in 2026, the most recent in an extended collection of steps taken this yr to increase its nationwide footprint.

The corporate stated in a weblog publish Tuesday it’ll begin providing totally autonomous journeys to staff in Miami. Over the subsequent few weeks, Waymo stated it’ll do the identical in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando.

This newest transfer comes only one week after Waymo introduced a serious milestone: it’s now providing paid rides on highways in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix. This yr has additionally seen Waymo launch in Atlanta and Austin with big-name companions like Uber, and launch a company journey program.

Waymo’s not the one firm making an attempt to scale a robotaxi service in the USA. Amazon-owned Zoox introduced earlier Tuesday morning it’s about to start out providing free rides in its purpose-built robotaxis to members of its early rider program in San Francisco. (It did the similar in Las Vegas in September.)

Tesla, in the meantime, has been trialing a service of its personal in Austin for a couple of months. At one level this yr, CEO Elon Musk tried to assert Tesla’s robotaxi service could be obtainable to half the nation by the tip of 2025. As of proper now, his firm’s automobiles nonetheless have security operators within the driver’s seats.

Amid all that potential competitors, Waymo is performing fairly assured.

“We haven’t simply constructed the know-how; we’ve developed the definitive playbook for working autonomous fleets, throughout dozens of web sites, and industry-leading end-to-end rider help,” the corporate wrote in Tuesday’s weblog publish.

It can want that confidence because it heads into 2026, which is shaping as much as be a good greater yr than 2025. Along with the 5 aforementioned cities, Waymo plans to start out providing rides in Detroit, Las Vegas, San Diego, Nashville, and London. The corporate can also be testing in New York Metropolis, and has a allow to maintain that up till at the very least the tip of the yr.

“By the tip of 2026, it’s best to anticipate us to offer 1 million journeys per week,” co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana stated at TechCrunch Disrupt final month.

Waymo’s enlargement hasn’t been flawless, although. The corporate’s tech is at the moment being probed by the Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration after considered one of its automobiles in Atlanta was filmed delivering entrance of a stopped college bus.