Amazon’s Zoox and Alphabet’s Waymo unveiled on Tuesday that they are planning to expand their driverless ride services to more U.S. cities as the robotaxi industry continues to grow. Zoox said it will start testing its robotaxis in Houston and San Diego. The company will first use vehicles with human drivers to map roads and test the technology. Later, it plans to bring its specially built driverless vehicles to these cities. With the two new locations, Zoox will be present in 12 U.S. markets.
Waymo is moving ahead faster. The company has started offering driverless rides to customers in San Diego, Tampa, Florida and Denver. This brings Waymo’s Service to 14 U.S. cities. It now has more than 4,000 vehicles and provides over 500,000 robotaxi rides every week. They are also planning to increase the number of vehicles in these new cities over time. Customers can book rides through the Waymo app.
The announcements come just before a planned Tesla event on Thursday, where the company is expected to share more details about its driverless Cybercab and robotaxi service. The robotaxi industry could become a major business. Goldman Sachs Research expects the U.S. robotaxi market to grow from about $3 billion next year to $19 billion by 2030, and then to $48 billion by 2035.
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However, driverless cars still face safety concerns, bad weather, road construction and traffic problems. Some workers also worry that robotaxis could reduce transportation jobs.
