Waymo expands robotaxi testing to Chicago and Charlotte

Waymo, the Alphabet-owned autonomous vehicle company, announced on Wednesday that it is bringing its robotaxis—autonomous vehicles used for ride-hailing services—to Chicago and Charlotte as part of its push to continue scaling autonomous vehicles. Starting today, the company will begin manual mapping and early data collection to lay the groundwork for operations in those cities. Manual mapping is the process of driving vehicles to collect data on road conditions and traffic patterns before autonomous testing begins. Waymo typically conducts months of manual driving and mapping to understand local road conditions, traffic patterns, and edge cases before gradually introducing autonomous testing and eventually fully driverless operations.

The expansion serves as a strategic test for the company’s technology across different environments. While Charlotte, with its suburban-style layout and mild weather, may be an easier use case for Waymo, Chicago’s harsh winters, heavy traffic, and dense urban complexity would be more of a challenge for Waymo. Operating successfully in Chicago would strengthen Waymo’s case that its system is nationally scalable. The move also gives Waymo another opportunity to test in a northern city after New York dropped a proposal that would have allowed commercial robotaxi pilots in parts of the state.

The announcement of the new testing locations comes the same week Waymo began commercial driverless operations—commercial services where vehicles operate without a human driver—in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. These launches bring Waymo’s total city count for operations to 10.

The company’s expanding footprint now spans several phases across multiple markets:

• New testing locations: Chicago and Charlotte, where manual mapping and early data collection begin today to lay the groundwork for future operations.
• New commercial driverless operations: Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando, where commercial driverless operations began this week, bringing the total city count to 10.
• Planned testing and launch locations: Denver, London, and Washington, D.C., where Waymo is also testing and planning to launch.

This expansion is supported by a major capital injection. Earlier this month, the Alphabet-owned autonomous vehicle company clinched $16 billion in funding to expand its operations internationally.

Why it matters

Operating in Chicago serves as a critical stress test for Waymo’s technology, helping the company prove its system can handle harsh weather and dense urban environments, which is essential for national scalability.