Waymo is adding another U.S. city to its robotaxi network.

Alphabet’s self-driving unit announced Thursday that its driverless ride-hailing service is now open to paying riders in Miami. The launch is Waymo’s first new U.S. city in 2026 and brings its total operating markets to six.

The service begins with a 60-square-mile coverage area that includes Miami’s Design District, Wynwood, Brickell, and Coral Gables. Waymo said nearly 10,000 residents have already signed up, and new riders will be added gradually through the company’s app. The company also plans to extend service to Miami International Airport, though it did not provide a specific date.

Miami joins Austin, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and the San Francisco Bay Area as cities where Waymo offers fully driverless rides. While other companies are still testing or running limited pilots, Waymo remains the only operator offering commercial robotaxi service across multiple large U.S. cities.

Waymo has said it plans to enter additional markets later this year, including Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Orlando, San Antonio, San Diego, Nashville, and Washington, D.C. By adding cities early, the company aims to build a regular user base before more competitors enter the market.

Those competitors include Tesla, which continues to develop its Full Self-Driving software but does not operate a driverless taxi service, and Amazon-owned Zoox, which remains in limited rollout. Outside the U.S., companies such as Apollo Go and WeRide are growing more quickly, especially in Asia.

Waymo’s usage numbers have continued to rise. The company crossed 450,000 weekly paid rides in December and said it completed about 14 million trips in 2025. Reports surfaced last month that Waymo is in talks to raise up to $15 billion in funding.

In Miami, Waymo is working with mobility company Moove to handle fleet operations, including charging, cleaning, and vehicle maintenance. These services are necessary as Waymo moves from testing into regular daily operations.

The expansion has also brought renewed attention to safety concerns. In Austin, the local school district says Waymo vehicles have repeatedly passed stopped school buses illegally, even after software updates meant to fix the issue. The district has asked Waymo to stop operating during school commute hours until the problem is addressed.

Those incidents have drawn scrutiny from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is reviewing similar cases involving Waymo vehicles in other cities. The issue resurfaced after former Waymo CEO John Krafcik criticized Tesla’s camera-only approach to autonomy, comments that came as Waymo continues to work through its own technical challenges.

Waymo says it’s continuing to fine-tune its software and operations after recent traffic issues in San Francisco during storms and power outages. Miami adds another big market, but the next phase will depend on how consistently the service works as it spreads to more cities.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Google, Amazon, and Tesla as mentioned in the article.