Waymo fully launched robotaxi service in Houston, Texas, today. You may recall that Waymo started inviting customers to use its service in Space City about 6 months ago. I didn’t recall that at first when I saw the news today that Waymo was launching in Houston, but I suspected it might be the case, so I dug back through the archives and found that was the case. The thing with Waymo these days is that it makes at least a few announcements for each city. The news today is that Waymo has gotten through its phased rollout to customers who expressed interest in using the robotaxi service in Houston and has now opened up the opportunity to anybody. If you’re in Houston and you download the app, you can hail a Waymo robotaxi ride in the city. “Since opening our service in February, we’ve welcomed more than 100,000 riders in Houston from our interest list to experience the safety, reliability, and magic of Waymo, and now we’re offering our service to everyone,” Waymo wrote. “We’ve proudly helped Houstonians run errands, commute to work, and celebrate nights out with friends. Houston played host to over 1 million visitors for the World Cup, and we served as a premier way for many of them to travel to and from games at Reliant Stadium and celebrate responsibly throughout the city.” I’m a little surprised Waymo didn’t reach broad rollout in cities like this before the World Cup began, and certainly before it ended, but perhaps the company’s focus on safety and process overrode a rush to get the business of people visiting for the World Cup. Well, good luck to Waymo in Houston. We’ll see how it goes and we’ll eagerly await announcements about which cities get Waymo robotaxis or broad robotaxi rollout next.
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