Waymo’s robotaxis are coming back to New York City

A Waymo conveyance waits connected a thoroughfare connected May 14, 2025, successful Los Angeles, California. | Photo: Getty Images

Waymo announced contiguous that it intends to motorboat a afloat autonomous robotaxi work successful New York City — but archetypal it needs to alteration authorities instrumentality to licence its vehicles to run with information drivers down the wheel.

The Alphabet-owned institution said it has applied for a licence from the city’s Department of Transportation to trial its vehicles with information drivers. If granted, it would beryllium the archetypal licence allowed nether the city’s caller process for regulating autonomous trial vehicles. While it waits, Waymo says adjacent period it volition commencement collecting mapping information with manually driven vehicles successful Manhattan.

New York authorities instrumentality requires “that a trial conveyance relation beryllium contiguous and acceptable to presume power of the conveyance portion the AV exertion is successful operation,” according to the city’s AV investigating website. Waymo said it is actively lobbying to alteration the instrumentality to let for autonomous vehicles without information drivers.

A measure was introduced successful the New York State Legislature earlier this twelvemonth that would licence autonomous vehicles without information drivers “provided that the automated driving strategy is engaged and the conveyance meets definite conditions.” The measure is presently nether information by the authorities Senate’s proscription committee.

New York City besides has immoderate of the astir dangerous, congested, and poorly managed streets in the world. They are besides afloat of operation workers, pedestrians, bicyclists, and double- and sometimes adjacent triple-parked cars. In theory, this would marque it precise hard for an autonomous conveyance to navigate, fixed that AVs typically trust connected bully weather, wide signage, and little assertive driving from different roadworthy users for harmless operation. And it’s not wide that the authorities volition amend its laws to let for afloat driverless vehicles, with immoderate lawmakers expressing reservations.

“This benignant of investigating hasn’t adjacent been completed successful different parts of the country,” authorities Senator John Liu told Daily News past twelvemonth aft the metropolis announced its caller permitting process. “It would behoove New York City to hold to spot immoderate of those different results of driverless exertion successful little dense municipality settings. This is an illustration of thing wherever New York City does not person to beryllium first.”

While different states person go hotbeds for AV testing, New York has been a spot of a shade town. Part of the crushed could beryllium the state’s strict rules, which primitively required a constabulary escort of autonomous trial vehicles — though that connection was removed aft a renewal of the instrumentality respective years ago.

In 2017, Cruise announced plans to trial its self-driving vehicles successful little Manhattan, but those plans were aboriginal scuttled. (Cruise was unopen down past year.) Boston-based Optimus Ride tested autonomous shuttles successful Brooklyn but lone connected backstage roads arsenic portion of the borough’s Navy Yard. Mobileye, a part of Intel, also tested a mates of vehicles in the city. And adjacent Waymo concisely gathered mapping data with a tiny fleet of manually driven vehicles successful 2021.

Waymo is presently operating a robotaxi fleet of 1,500 vehicles successful 4 markets: San Francisco and the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin. It plans connected launching a commercialized work successful Atlanta aboriginal this year, arsenic good arsenic Miami and Washington, DC. The institution has said it volition add an further 2,000 vehicles to its fleet done 2026.