Waymo is adding two more pins to its robotaxi map. The autonomous ride-hailing unit of Alphabet $GOOGL ( ▼ 0.54% ) announced plans to launch service in Boston and Sacramento as it continues scaling its driverless footprint across the US and beyond.
The move comes as Waymo ramps up operations in existing cities and looks to cement its early lead in the commercial self-driving race.
From test tracks to traffic jams
Waymo says it has now completed more than 20 million fully autonomous rides and is currently delivering around 400,000 driverless trips per week. That scale is starting to look less like a pilot program and more like a real transportation network.
Sacramento should be a smoother rollout, but Boston is a different story. The company made it clear that before anyone in Massachusetts can hail a driverless Waymo, state laws will need to change to allow fully autonomous vehicles on public roads.
Global ambitions, local roadblocks
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai also signaled that Waymo’s expansion plans go well beyond these two cities. The company is eyeing additional US markets along with international growth in the UK and Japan.
Still, every new city brings its own regulatory maze, weather quirks, and road design headaches. Scaling robotaxis is not just a tech problem — it is a legal and logistical one too.
But with millions of rides already under its belt, Waymo is clearly betting that slow, city-by-city expansion beats waiting for a nationwide green light.