Waymo in New York
Tested 8 Jaguar I-Paces with safety specialists in Manhattan & downtown Brooklyn, Aug 2025 – Mar 31 2026. NYC did not renew the permit. Publicly committed to 'working with the State Legislature'.
Only operator with NYC on-road experience, a lidar stack that satisfies every proposed sensor rule, and the fleet scale to launch the day Albany acts. Blocked purely by law.
Fully driverless, public paid service
~500,000 paid rides / week
Passes NJ A3968's redundant-sensor test as drafted.
Vehicle & service
Vehicles: Jaguar I-Pace (5th-gen Driver); Zeekr-built Waymo Ojai (6th-gen)
How you hail it: Waymo app; Uber app in Austin & Atlanta; Lyft partnership (Nashville)
Pricing: Dynamic. Early-2026 multi-city average ≈ $19.69 per trip vs UberX $17.47 and Lyft $15.47; wins on longer trips once tipping is counted. Standard UberX rates where booked via Uber.
Safety record: Reports ~90% fewer serious-injury crashes than human benchmark over 100M+ rider-only miles (company data, peer-reviewed methodology).
Footprint
Live today: Phoenix, San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Orlando
Announced / next: Philadelphia (testing, commercial possible late 2026), Washington DC (legislation pending; 2028 earliest), Nashville, Denver, Las Vegas, San Diego, Detroit, New Orleans, Tampa, Minneapolis, London, Tokyo
The New York question
New York: Tested 8 Jaguar I-Paces with safety specialists in Manhattan & downtown Brooklyn, Aug 2025 – Mar 31 2026. NYC did not renew the permit. Publicly committed to 'working with the State Legislature'.
New Jersey: Preparing manual (human-driven) mapping at Newark Airport; NJ pilot bill S1677 advancing.
Only operator with NYC on-road experience, a lidar stack that satisfies every proposed sensor rule, and the fleet scale to launch the day Albany acts. Blocked purely by law.
Verified 2026-09-09. Official site: waymo.com
- Albany amends VTL §1226 or passes an AV pilot that includes NYC (see tracker).
- NYC DOT issues a testing permit and the TLC creates a license category — S10413 would restrict it to medallion owners.
- Labor deal: every live proposal ties approval to driver-transition funding or union sign-off.